Soon after the notification of Aadhaar regulations,
the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has written to all ministries and states to
notify services, benefits and subsidies for which the 12-digit number will now
be mandatory.
"The
notification shall mention the service, benefits or subsidies funded from the
Consolidated Fund of India, which will require, as a condition precedent, a
beneficiary to undergo Aadhaar authentication or furnish proof of possession of
Aadhaar number," UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey wrote to all ministries and
states in a letter on September 15.
The
letter said that if a person does not have Aadhaar, he will not be denied a
benefit but be enrolled in the programme at once, with the respective ministry
or state government being made responsible to provide him with the unique
identification number. The government has asked ministries and states to list
"alternate identity documents and verification methodologies" to give
services to citizens till the time Aadhaar is assigned to them once they apply
for the same.
Citing
clause 12 of the recently-notified Aadhaar regulations, the letter said that if
an application does not have an Aadhaar number, the arrangement/facilitation
will be made by the ministry or state concerned to provide Aadhaar enrolment
facilities to the applicant at convenient locations.
"In
case, there are no existing enrolment facilities nearby, they (ministries or
state agencies) are required to become UIDAI registrars so that they can set up
enrolment facilities themselves. UIDAI has already empowered several ministries
and states or the agencies under their jurisdictions to become its registrar
and undertake enrolment of their beneficiaries who are not enrolled for
Aadhaar," the letter said.
UIDAI
has asked ministries, states or their agencies that want to be a UIDAI
registrar to "do so immediately". As reported by ET earlier, these
regulations, as re-emphasised in the letter, aim at mollifying concerns among
certain political quarters that people would be denied benefits or subsidies if
don't have Aadhaar.
"If
a person does not have Aadhaar, he can still get a service through an alternate
identity and verification mechanism in the interim, provided he enrols for
Aadhaar at once. On getting Aadhaar in a stipulated time post enrolment, the
same would become the basis for getting the benefit," Pandey told
ET.
The
UIDAI CEO said that the ministries or state agencies making Aadhaar mandatory
for services or subsidies funded from Consolidated Fund of India will be
responsible to provide convenient enrolment facility. "There can't be a
situation where you say I don't want to enrol for Aadhaar," he said.
Source
: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
