Pass Bill to make Aadhaar valid: Prof

Seeking a bill to ensure constitutional validity for Aadhaar cards, K C Belliappa, former Vice Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, said that Aadhaar can be a boon for the poor.

“Aadhaar has to be made more unique. It has the capacity to prevent government funds from being siphoned off, while ensuring that the benefits reach the needy,” he said.

He was delivering the inaugural address at a one day national seminar on ‘Managerial Challenges in Implementing Aadhaar Program in India’, at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in the city.

He was skeptical in his talk, stating that Aadhaar card and the bio-metric information associated with the card, can be misused to spy on individuals. He described Aadhaar as ‘an internal passport to avail the benefits of the government.’

S N Prasad, Professor of Physics, Regional Institute of Engineering, Mysore said that Aadhaar was affected by technical challenges and social problems of the country.

“The Home ministry, despite the progress of Aadhaar registration and Direct Cash Transfer in the country, has remained distant from the project. This is not a good sign,” he said.
Taking a dig at the poor design of cards, meant to be unique for a citizen, he said that Aadhaar cards were worse off than conventional cards. “Any form of identity card, needs to be of better quality than the Aadhaar cards which were being used currently,” he said.
He also highlighted the delays in Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issuing cards to people who had registered under the programme.

Dharani Devi Malagatti, Deputy Director, Karnataka Police Academy said that there was a ‘credibility gap’ in governance. People have been cynical and skeptical of government initiatives. This has affected Aadhaar, she said.