AADHAAR BILL IN LOK SABHA
The bill to give statutory backing to Aadhaar and make it the mainstay of the direct cash-transfer scheme brought in as a money bill, which will help the government overcome Rajya Sabha bha hurdle. The he Congress opposes the move
NEW DELHI: When Aadhaar was conceived in 2009, the idea was to track every penny the government spends. Though the UPA government had an eye on the 2014 general elections, the move failed as the Aadhaar- based tracking mechanism called direct benefit transfer was not fully operational. The government could not identify the beneficiaries of Central schemes.
By 2019, when the next Lok Sabha polls are held, the Narendra Modi-led government will have a complete database of beneficiaries of its schemes and amount of money they received. The Aadhaar Bill introduced in Lok Sabha on Thursday can help achieve that.
Around 980 million have enrolled for the 12-digit biometric unique identification number, shortly termed Aadhaar, and by 2016-end the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) aims to enroll all eligible 1.1 billion residents. The government will have delivery of all major central schemes — from rural employment guarantee to scholarships and pen- sions — on the Aadhaar platform, probably by the end of 2017.
“We will know how much money we have given to every poor person and how it has changed their lives,” a member of National Institution for Transforming India (Niti) Aayog told HT, adding it will provide necessary steam to Modi’s pro-poor push.
Politics aside, the draft law tries to undo a Supreme Court order by incorporating a clause on privacy of a person having Aadhaar and making the number mandatory for availing government benefits and services. SC had asked the government to keep Aadhaar voluntary primarily because the privacy issue was not addressed.
The bill says the enroller will have to be informed about the purpose for which his or her biometric details were being collected and the consent will have to be taken when the information collected is shared with any agency except in interest of “national security”. The term national security has, however, not been defined.
Unlike the UPA draft, the bill empowers UIDAI to omit and deactivate an Aadhaar number. The basis would be explained in the operational rules to be formulated once the law is enacted.
The draft deletes a provision in the UPA’s proposal saying that no information pertaining to a person’s race, religion, caste, tribe, ethnicity, language, income or health will be sought. This is because many states including Gujarat have sought information related to income while enrolling for Aadhaar. The bill, however, reiterated Aadhaar will not be evidence of citizenship or domicile. Congress may not oppose the bill except on its nature as a money bill. The RS, where the BJP government is in minority, cannot amend a money bill and has to return it to LS within 14 days.