Voter ID may double up as Aadhaar card

The Union Ho­me Ministry is looking at a proposal for making the voter ID ca­rd double up as Aadhaar doc­ument.

The proposal, from the Election Commission of India and the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), will ensure that Aadhaar does not duplicate the data that is collected and used by the Election Commission.

Speaking to Deccan Herald on the sidelines of an event he­re, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr S Y Quraishi on Sunday said: “With the UID project already completing the biometric process under its umbrella, by scanning fingerprints and retina scan, we have approached the Centre to merge the Election ID cards with UID.”

If the MHA approves the proposal, voter ID cards may soon have UID unique numbers embossed on them. 

“We will have the unique identification numbers provided by the UID printed on the election IDs,” Quraishi said. The single ID would enable the holder to prove his elector credentials and also access the benefits of government services under Aadhaar.

The CEC stated that the UID project, when started, had proposed to print the identification numbers on all Government documentations. “But now, as I believe, they have started to issue the UID cards,” he said.

Earlier, the CEC said Project Director for UID Nandan Nilekani had approached the EC for accessing their data base and voters list for preparing the UID database. “With over 750 million people registered with the EC, we have the largest data base to help the UID project,” he said. The UIDAI is already in the process of integrating the Permanent Account Number (PAN) and UID details.

As in the case of the voter ID and Aadhaar, the Finance Ministry, too, was of the view that both the agencies, UIDAI and Income-Tax, would be “duplicating the effort” to reach the common goal of a biometrics-based identity. 

Further, as Finance Minister, P Chidambaram had proposed a biometric PAN card to weed out fraudulent cards in circulation across the country.

But with Aadhaar, the decision was made by the Centre to merge the PAN details with the UID.