Cabinet meet to decide UIDAI future put off
A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification (CCUID) which was to decide the fate of UIDAI project in the backdrop of differences between the Union Home Ministry and the Planning Commission has been postponed.
The panel headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was to meet on Wednesday to take the final call on the proposal to give statutory powers to Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI to issue identity cards to the entire population instead of the mandated 200 million.
“The scheduled meeting has been postponed and the decision regarding its meeting will be taken later,” an official said.
The Planning Commission and the Home Ministry are locked in a tussle over the unique identification number project and both had taken the issue to the prime minister for a solution.
The government, the source said, will have to take a decision soon as UIDAI is likely to complete the mandate of enrolling 20 crore residents even before the deadline of March 31.
The centre of the controversy is the data collection method of citizens. While the Home Ministry maintained that the Registrar General of India (RGI) under it has been mandated to collect the data through the NPR, UIDAI has also been authorised to gather the information.
Home Minister P Chidambaram has sought clarity on the status on who will capture bio-metric data — RGI or UIDAI. The ministry feels the data collected by UIDAI was not secure enough as it is not verified by a government servant.
The data collection by UIDAI has been done by hired organisations which is a cause of concern for the Home Minister.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has come out in support of the UIDAI saying the project should continue.
