At
a recent high-level meeting of PRAGATI, PM asked UIDAI and chief
secretaries of states to accelerate and complete enrollment of all
residents by December 2015.
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has pushed for universal enrollment under the ambitious
Aadhaar project by the year-end. At a recent high-level meeting of
PRAGATI (Pro-Active Governance And Timely Implementation), Modi asked
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and chief secretaries
of states such as UP and Bihar which are lagging behind to accelerate
and complete enrollment of all residents by December 2015.
Modi's emphasis on the 'JAM
(Jandhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) trinity' in his Silicon Valley outreach, is a
clear indication that he wants Aadhaar to be one of the pivots of his
anti-poverty strategies ensuring entitlements meant for poor and rural
masses actually reach them.
On its part, the UIDAI, which has
enrolled around 91.68 crore citizens since it issued the first Aadhaar
number five years back, is confident it can rise to the PM's
expectations. As Aadhaar emerges as a tool to check pilferages in
entitlements of welfare scheme, the government too seems to be
increasingly convinced that the issue of privacy will withstand the
scrutiny of the law.
Privacy rights activists argue
that biometric information collected from all those who sign up for an
Aadhaar number can be abused if not backed by adequate legal safeguards.
The government, which feels that without Aadhaar, targeting of social
welfare schemes will be hard, thinks otherwise.
An expert said there is no
credible apprehension of breach of privacy if this were to be permitted
as the UIDAI doesn't share any personal information of an Aadhaar card
holder, including biometric details to any other person or government
agency. "The IT Act 2000 has every safeguard to protect the privacy of
all sensitive information and Aadhaar is already compliant with the
Act," he said.
For instance, he said, the UIDAI
refused to share with CBI the biometric details of everyone who was
enrolled in Goa and the Supreme Court gave the verdict in its favour.
The authority had moved the apex court after the Goa high court ordered
it to share biometric data with the CBI which was investigating a
14-month-old rape case in Goa that is yet to be solved.
The UIDAI argued before the SC
that its database is for civilian purposes and cannot be shared without
consent under the agency's current data-sharing and privacy policy. "The
Supreme Court can direct UIDAI not to share the data with anybody not
even government," he added.
