UID phase-II gets 3,000 cr

A Cabinet committee on Thursday approved Rs 3,023 crore for phase-II of the Unique Identification Numbers project, in which 10 crore residents will get the number at end of March 2011.

A Cabinet committee on Thursday approved Rs 3,023 crore for phase-II of the Unique Identification Numbers project, in which 10 crore residents will get the number at end of March 2011.

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HT had earlier reported that a Finance ministry committee had cut the UID Authority's proposal from Rs 6,734 crore to Rs 3,023 crore. The cut was mainly on the incentive proposed for the registrars for issuing UIDs.

"Of this, an amount of Rs. 477.11 crore would be towards recurring establishment expenditure and Rs. 2,545.90 crore would be towards non-recurring project related expenditure," an official statement said.

Phase 1 of the scheme approved in November 2009 was mainly for setting up necessary infrastructure for offices at headquarters and regional headquarters, creating testing facilities for running the pilots and proof of concept (PoC) experiments, initial work of creating standards in various areas of operations.

In the second phase, the first set of 10 crore UID numbers are expected to be issued between August 2010 and March 2011. Thereafter, 600 million UID numbers are expected to be issued within the next three years. The UID project would provide unique numbers to all residents of India.

The UID project, established last year, is primarily aimed at ensuring inclusive growth by providing a form of identity to those who do not have any. It seeks to provide UID numbers to marginalised sections of society and thus would strengthen equity, an official release said.