UIDAI cancels 3.84 lakh fake Aadhaar numbers

Some have managed to beat the so-called unbeatable Unique Identification (UID) system and got fake Aadhaar numbers generated raising security concerns over UPA's new UID based governance model, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Dec 26, 2012, 02:26:13 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Some have managed to beat the so-called unbeatable Unique Identification (UID) system and got fake Aadhaar numbers generated raising security concerns over UPA's new UID based governance model.

Nandan Nilekani led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has cancelled 3.84 lakh Aadhaar numbers of the total 4.10 lakh generated under the biometric exception clause.

The Aadhaar agencies are allowed to enroll people without proper finger-prints or iris under the biometric exception clause.

In this, the agencies are required to provide photographs of the non-existent biometrics along with demographic details of the enrollers.

The biometric exception was incorporated to make Aadhaar truly inclusive identification generation process as there was highly level of exclusion in other systems such as ration cards.

But, the agencies exploited the clause to make some pass money as for each successful enrollment and generation of Aadhaar number, the agency got Rs 50.

It was business as usual for UIDAI till a large number of Aadhaar letters in Andhra Pradesh remained undelivered.

"Most of the 45,000 undelivered Aadhaar letters in Andhra were under the exception clause. It hinted that something was wrong," a senior UIDAI official said. Further scrutiny revealed that of 48.80 lakh Aadhaar generated in Andhra, 2.30 lakh were false and were subsequently cancelled.

With the lid blown off, similar instance cropped in other states.

A Delhi government official said, who reported around 13,000 fraudulent enrollments to UIDAI, said the biometric exception was introduced for people with high level of disabilities but it was frequently used raising a question over credibility of Aadhaar numbers.

The UIDAI admitted of similar high number of fake Aadhaar numbers from Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh in a reply to Lok Sabha.

The authority also found of the total Aadhaar generated under this clause, only 22,195 were found to be genuine. Another 6,600 Aadhaar numbers are under investigation.

For enrollment of around 90 crore residents in subsequent phases, the UIDAI has asked agencies not to opt for biometric exception without approval from a senior, preferably a government official.

The UPA government has decided to use Aadhaar payment platform for delivery of its welfare schemes once the enrollment is complete likely by April 2014.

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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