Take UID, get bank account

A bank account free with unique identification number — is how the government plans to sell its plan for creating a database of all residents, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Feb 4, 2010, 02:06:24 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A bank account free with unique identification number — is how the government plans to sell its plan for creating a database of all residents.

To ensure that every Indian has a unique identification number (UID) within five years of the rollout — launch is expected in December — the government will open a savings account in a nationalised bank with a deposit of Rs 100.

The Unique Identification Authority of India has sought Rs 25,000 crore for the incentive. An announcement is likely in the Budget to be presented on February 26.

“I cannot confirm or deny the proposal,” director general of the authority R.S. Sharma told HT. “It is being felt that half of Indian population will not opt for the UID, if there is no financial incentive,” said a senior government official, who didn’t wish to be identified as he is not authorised to speak to the media. A UID is not mandatory.

“Through UID we aim to bring all residents into formal banking network. It'll eventually help in tracking black money in a better way,” the official said. According to government estimates half of the country’s population is unbanked.

In its proposal, the authority has said each number will cost the government Rs 200. Half the money will be for the services of private vendors and remaining will be the opening balance for the applicant's account. Private vendors will be given work through the authority's regional offices, which are functional.

There could be some grant for the incentive in the Budget, a Plan panel official said on condition of anonymity. “The finance ministry has to take the final call.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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