The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has rejected the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) Bill, which was meant to give a legal backing to the Aadhaar project and its aim of using biometrics to create a unique identity for every resident of India.
Sources in the Committee say the Bill has been rejected in its current form on the grounds of the project's high cost, as well as concerns regarding national security, privacy and duplication of the National Population Register's (NPR) activities. One major sticking point was reportedly the Aadhaar project's ambition to enrol every “resident” of the country, rather than every “citizen.”
The Committee, headed by Yashwant Sinha (BJP), is likely to table its report in Parliament next week.
Congress MP Rashid Alvi submitted a dissent note at the Committee meeting on Thursday, suggesting that while recommendations could be sent to the government, the Bill should not be rejected outright.
However, the sources indicated that Mr. Alvi himself agreed with most of the Committee's problems with the Bill and that there were serious differences with the government itself regarding the Aadhaar project.
The Home Ministry has raised concerns that Aadhaar's biometric data collection and verification does not meet security criteria. There has also been a turf clash with the Home Ministry's National Population Register which is also documenting photographs, fingerprints and iris scans of all residents.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra Singh said the NPR database would be sent to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) for de-duplication. The UIDAI was only generating unique identity numbers and communicating it in a letter, but it was the NPR that intends to issue Resident Identity Cards, he emphasised.
So far, the UIDAI, headed by the former Infosys chief, Nandan Nilekani, has issued about 6 crore Aadhaar numbers, and over 10 crore people have been enrolled into the system. The project's budget is Rs. 1,660 crore, of which over a third has already been spent.
However, there is still no legal parliamentary backing for the project, a glitch that was sought to be retrospectively corrected by the NIAI Bill.
Comments:
UIDAI is doing a fantastic job at record speed (nobody in the world can match this) of collecting data and issuing Aadhar cards.The government should definitely table this Bill and pass it-as a first step we are collecting, then , data on all residents in the country. If there is a concern that these are not citizens of India questions arise. First of all why is Chidambaram and the govt. of India not deporting these foreigners? Why is Chidambaram a failure in detecting foreign elements in India ? If these foreign elements are going to live in this country it is best to have them identified as such. Coming to the non citizen's part, the solution is to give Chidambaram the Aadhar list and ask him to denotify and deport foreigners. Can this failure of a Home Minister do at least this? The NPR is a non-starter and a redundant exercise now. All residents are getting enrolled at break neck speed-why stop this? This money is well spent.Can Chidambaram at least use this data effectively?
UIDAI is a waste of money specially when the same work is being done by
Registrar General of India. Moreover, UIDAI card has no legal basis
unlike other cards. Its curious why government went ahead with such a
non-viable and useless project in first place. Hope the government takes
these recommendations of the parliamentary committee seriously.
This is an excellent example of how political egoes kill the development of our nation and the justification of The Parliamentary Standing Committee is highly unappealing.
"Sources in the Committee say the Bill has been rejected in its current form on the grounds of the project's high cost, as well as concerns regarding national security, privacy and duplication of the National Population Register's (NPR) activities. "
high cost - just imagine the huge amount of money siphoned in the name of welfare activites, which in actual is never delivered, i'm sure no parliamentry committee would ever address on the accountability of the same.
national security - leave apart security we are struggling with internal security with increased naxal activities.
privacy - can the committe suggest on improvements.
duplication - there will not be any duplication as the NPR would not be able to start the data collection process, and even if they start you can imagine their delivery speeds.
"The Home Ministry has raised concerns that Aadhaar's biometric data collection and verification does not meet security criteria."
Can the Home Ministry put up these criterion on a website ? I would like to read them. Can the Home Ministry also clarify how many trials they have done using these criteria ? Bangladeshis are free to enter this country at will and take up residence here. The Home Ministry has failed to secure the country. Pakistanis routinely infiltrate from across the border. Have concerns of security been met? "UIDAI is a waste of money specially when the same work is being done by Registrar General of India." The Registrar General has not received any funds for this activity yet. Thus, no money is wasted. What the Standing Committee is doing is objecting on their behalf and Chidambaram's so that this budget goes to the Home Ministry. Then the Home Ministry can set up another mini-fiefdom Let UIDAI do the enrolment ; let others use the data it generates.
Now we know what we suspected all along, that UID is illegal. Why was this project started before the legislation was brought? Who is going to pay for rs. 2000 crores of tax payers' money wasted ? Hats off to the standing committee who seem to have studied things well. Lack of cost-benefit analysis, lack of feasibility study, untested and unproved ( read faulty) technology, overriding of its own biometric committee's report are some of the valid reasons cited. UIDAI, inspite of having so much money/resources to spend, wasnt able to satisfactorily answer any of these questions of standing committee. What a shame!
If it is illegal , an FIR has to be filed.
The Standing Committe wants to know why two people have been assigned the same job. The other group can be asked to stop and the Standing Committee satisfied.
Cost benefit analysis is obvious - Rs 17,000 cr of subsidies can be done without leakages ( currently estimated at anything over 50% of this amount).
When PAN was introduced there was no cost benefit analysis, by the way.
The Standing Committee has pointed out security concerns and the same Standing Committee is unable to prevent infiltration from Bangladesh. What Aadhar can do is identity the Bangladeshis with their fingerprints and this can then enable the Standing Committee and Chidambaram to decide what they wish to do. But then, Chidambaram has already allowed them in - why is he complaining ?
Whether its legal or illegal, UIDAI commitee must continue to work for the project that they are proposed. We all believe that it is one of the best method of data collection of the country, and collecting of the virtual data by the Department. The issue of UID Number will fetch every individual their identity Nationwide otherwise we are facing problem of getting Ration Card which has a lot number of formalities and delay in issuing of such Cards have made the people fed-up with such process and after a couple of visit to the department they stop their way to Government Dept. as to the most of them it seems a waste of time.
I think UIDAI is doing a wonderful job on their part and I would request Government to give their sanction by making whaatever changes they want to make but not stopping them from doing their work.
While I personally want Indian Govt to go ahead with the AADHAR project and finally succeed in achieving the benefits which it is claiming, the questions raised by the SCoF worries me. The points can't be stated as political and out rightly rejected, as some of them are valid such as - The major one cost, the second and most important one what is the guarantee that the data collected by the private parties is safe and is not backed up by them for their own purpose, what is tomorrow one of these private company will evaporate and sell off the national data to some country whose name may start with P, C or may be U. though i am a common man and I may not be affected by all these things but still it worries, a thought popped up in my mind as to did I committed a mistake by enrolling myself and family for AADHAR.
Whenever there is a debate we get to hear more of criticism. Besides criticizing we should also bring out for discussion any alternatives and solutions. We don't seem to discuss solutions, we tend to discuss only issues and problems. If UIID indeed has genuine and inherent problems, what are the alternatives and what other solutions can be thought of that can meet the program objectives.
What is this "wonderful" job a lot of people are praising here? The UID is being issued on the basis of already existing documents without any new verification process. Biometric information is a new acquisition, but how is it going to be stored and accessed at the user end in the event of an emergency? Where is the infrastructure and training for that? Why is there no collection of data such as height and weight? If there is an issue of national security and we're looking for a terrorist who is on this database, then surely, we cannot be asking everybody to peep into a retina scanner or a fingerprint recognition machine! Can we even imagine our police forces being able to scan a crowd of 200 at a railway station with these instruments?
Having registered in May 2011, I still (4 January 2012) have to receive any communication from the UIDAI for UID allocated to me even though their website states that the process was completed in October 2011. It is a pity that Mr Nilekani has been unable to put adequate processes and controls in place to ensure service levels are met. If the Authority cannot manage a simple enrolment and UID allotment process, how can it ever manage the security, confidentiality and integrity of data. The UID project is a huge risk for citizens, and should be scrapped immediately.
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