House panel wants review of National ID card scheme

NEW DELHI: After losing out to Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in biometric enrolment for National Population Register (NPR) in most parts of the country, the Registrar General of India has now been asked by a parliamentary panel to rethink its proposal to issue national identity cards to all citizens above 18 years of age.
The department-related standing committee on home affairs, in its 185th report on demands for grants for 2015-16, has noted that with elector’s photo identity card (EPIC) now being seeded with Aadhaar data, it should suffice as the identification document for all adult citizens of the country.The panel has, in fact, cautioned against duplication of efforts between various government agencies that are bound to cause unnecessary strain on the exchequer.
“The committee...notes that the proposal for issuance of national identity card to the citizens of India, who are of age 18 years and above, is under consideration. The committee feels proposal...needs to be examined keeping in mind presence of successful voter I-card scheme,” states the panel’s report laid before the Rajya Sabha in April 23.
“The committee also understands that linking of Aadhaar numbers with voter I-cards is underway and therefore voter I-cards will also have biometric details. In view of the committee, this arrangement seems sufficient,” it added.
The panel, in its final recommendation, said “it desires that all possible steps should be taken to avoid the duplication of efforts between different agencies of the government as well as avoidable expenditure from the public exchequer”.
NPR enrolment was to be originally done by RGI all over the country. But later on, states were divided between UIDAI and RGI. With UIDAI enrolment being much faster than RGI, the authority was allocated 24 states. Also, four major states, including UP and Bihar, were taken away by RGI last year and handed over to UIDAI.
The parliamentary panel’s thumbs-down to the multipurpose national I-card (MNIC) project comes as yet another blow to RGI. As per the RGI’s proposal, the MNIC project would follow once the NPR is in place. The MNIC is envisaged to include 15 parameters on its face as well as readable chip, including the photograph and biometric details of the holder, and will serve as proof of Indian citizenship.