Wed, Nov 18 2015. 12 35 AM IST
UIDAI is focusing all its energies into maximizing the number of beneficiaries under various schemes
According to the UIDAI data, there are around 1 billion beneficiaries under PDS, 159.1 million under the LPG subsidy, 91.7 million under MGNREGS, 27.1 million under pension schemes and 54 million under EPF. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint
New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency which issues Aadhaar numbers, is focusing all its energies into maximizing the number of beneficiaries under various schemes for which the Supreme Court of India has given its consent for using the unique number.
“Right now, we are concentrating on how more people can be added to the benefit schemes that has been allowed to us,” said an UIDAI official, requesting anonymity.
The apex court had on 15 October allowed use of the Aadhaar number for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), central and state government pensions and the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) scheme, in addition to the public distribution system (PDS) and distribution of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and kerosene. Earlier, in an interim order on 11 August, the apex court had restricted the use of Aadhaar to the PDS and the distribution of cooking gas and kerosene.
According to the UIDAI data, there are around 1 billion beneficiaries under PDS, 159.1 million under the LPG subsidy, 91.7 million under MGNREGS, 27.1 million under pension schemes (National Social Assistance Programme) and 54 million under EPF. Also, till date, 191.3 million bank accounts have been opened under the PMJDY.
The Aadhaar seeding in these schemes, as per the latest data from UIDAI, are MGNREGS (52.29%), the pension schemes (23.22%), LPG subsidy (52.61%), PMJDY (42.08%),EPFO (17.14%), and PDS (20%).
“The Supreme Court has allowed the voluntary usage of the unique identity in quite a number of government schemes and we want to use this opportunity to seed as many benefit schemes with Aadhaar number,” said the UIDAI official.
The official added that the authority is also working on laws and rules on data protection to remove concerns about protection of privacy.
The legal case that the apex court is hearing relate to Aadhaar numbers being made mandatory to avail of certain government benefits and services, and others that deal with the number itself being a violation of an individual’s privacy, especially in the absence of any backing regulation or oversight, and some deal with possible misuse of the information. Subsequently, several state governments, government departments and regulatory agencies had put up a joint defence seeking a modification of the interim order.
They included the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the state governments of Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan, and industry body Indian Banks’ Association, along with UIDAI.
The Economic Times, on 3 November, reported that audit and consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers India has been engaged by UIDAI to build a system to oversee the security of the Aadhaar ecosystem.
The official quoted above also said that the authority is hopeful that the government will soon provide Aadhaar with legislative backing.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley said on 6 November, “We can’t have a situation where Aadhaar is acceptable for certain measures to be adopted by the government, but not acceptable for other kinds of measures.”
The UIDAI official quoted above said that although there is no official word on the date, it will happen soon.
“If the finance minister has said that the bill, which is already there, will soon be passed, I am sure that he has made up his mind and it will happen soon,” the official added.
The winter session of Parliament is scheduled from 26 November to 23 December.