20-fold hike likely in budget for UIDAI

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is likely to spend Rs 200 per head for providing a 16-digit number to people as the allocation for the ambitious project may see a 20-fold increase in the 2010-11 Union Budget.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is likely to spend Rs 200 per head for providing a 16-digit number to people as the allocation for the ambitious project may see a 20-fold increase in the 2010-11 Union Budget.

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The UIADI, for which government had earmarked Rs 100 crore in the last fiscal, may get an allocation of nearly Rs 2,000 crore in this year's budget, official sources said.

The authorities are planning to rope in vendors in all the cities who would be paid Rs 200, half of which will be spent on opening a bank account of the resident who is to be issued the unique 16-digit number, the sources said.

While the UIADI authorities remained tight-lipped on the issue, the sources said the remaining Rs 100 would be given to the vendor as an incentive for taking the finger print, opening of bank account and gathering other details about an individual.

The UIDAI was established under the aegis of the Planning Commission for which a notification was issued in January last year. The project envisages assigning a unique identification number to each resident in the country and aims at eliminating the need for multiple identification mechanism prevalent across various government departments.

While the first UID is expected to be dished out in early 2011, a target has been set to provide 600 million UIDs in the next five years.