UID-home ministry dispute in PM's court

The Planning Commission has brushed aside concerns of the home ministry that enrolment of residents by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be an "internal security" risk terming it "unrealistic" and has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a final call.

Updated on: Nov 24, 2011, 21:40:28 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The Planning Commission has brushed aside concerns of the home ministry that enrolment of residents by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be an "internal security" risk terming it "unrealistic" and has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to take a final call.

The plan panel has sent a detailed note to the Prime Minister's Office on why UIDAI is important for India because of its linkage with delivery of developmental schemes unlike home ministry's National Population Register (NPR) aimed at providing identity cards to residents.

In an over 100 page note, the panel had also said that Nandan Nilekani headed UIDAI enrolment process was inclusive and aims at bringing every resident under the unique identification or Aadhaar number regime.

"All residents may not get enrolled for Aadhaar if the National Population Register protocol is followed," a senior plan panel functionary said.

The NPR protocol stipulates receiving objections of those seeking enrolment and verification by local revenue department official. "Persons aggrieved by such order have a right of appeal to the Tehsildar and then to the District Collector," says the website of Census commissioner. Once this process is over, the lists will be placed in the Gram Sabha in villages and the Ward Committee in towns.

UIDAI adopts easier approach of issuing Aadhaar numbers to those who have any of the listed documents to prove identity or is introduced by a person already having an Aadhaar number.

Home minister P Chidambaram, who has also sent his comments on plan panel's note to the PMO earlier this month, had described the UIDAI process as internal security threat as it does not follow rigid enrolment protocol prescribed under the Citizens Act of 1955.

Plan panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia do not agree with the contention and has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suggest changes in the law to provide statutory backing to UIDAI" enrolment process.

PM Singh had reportedly asked Ahluwalia and Chidambaram to have informal talks with each other on their differences over future of UIDAI.

The home ministry wants that after March 2012 only NPR should be allowed to enroll residents for an Aadhaar number and UIDAI should act as its backend office. Ahluwalia, however, wants both the organsiations to enroll in close coordination with each other.

The plan panel officials say the issue will be sorted out by the PM before the Union Cabinet takes a 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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