The government has been asked by the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance to provide a statutory backing to
Aadhaar at the earliest and take immediate steps to address issues pertaining
to the project.
“The committee, therefore, once
again reiterates that the government should immediately address the key issues
relating to UIDAI and initiate measures for early legislation on the subject,”
said the panel headed by senior Congress leader and former union minister M
Veerappa Moily.
It noted that the reply of the
Planning Ministry on the pending legislation on UIDAI has been repetitive.
In its reply to the panel, the
Planning Ministry said, “In view of the recent steps taken by the government to
universalise Aadhaar enrolments and to utilise it for several service delivery
initiatives, the government recognises that there is an urgent requirement to
pass the bill. Further steps, that are required to be taken to take the
proposed legislation further, are being taken.”
The panel said, “The Committee had
time and again urged the government to address the key issues related to the
Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Bill, particularly in the
light of recent Supreme Court Judgement.”
In October, lifting its earlier
restriction, the Supreme Court had allowed voluntary use of Aadhaar for welfare
programmes including MGNREGA, all pension schemes, provident fund and Pradhan
Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna.
Before the order, the use of Aadhaar
was restricted to public distribution system (PDS) and disbursal of cooking gas
subsidy.
Last month, Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley had said the draft legislation to give a statutory backing to the
unique identification number is ready and a decision would be taken at an
appropriate time.
However, the bill was not listed on
agenda for the Winter Session of Parliament which began on November 26.
According to UIDAI website, 94.14
crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued so far as against the country population
of 121 crore as per 2011 census.
In another report on the Statistics
Ministry, the panel said, “The committee strongly feel that cadre review
(upgradation of pay) in the subordinate statistical service is need of the hour
to stop attrition and attract suitable candidates to tide over the present
human resource crunch, particularly at the field level.”
The ministry told the panel that as
on May 1, 2015, there were 204 vacancies of Senior Statistics Officers against
the sanctioned posts of 1,756. There were 896 vacancies of Junior Statistics
officers against the sanctioned posts of 2,195.
It also asked the ministry to start
the pre-legislative consultation process to introduce a bill in Parliament for
providing legal status to National Statistical Commission.
Source : http://www.business-standard.com/
