With PM Narendra Modi asking for expeditious implementation of the direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme through Aadhaar-based biometric identification, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has kicked off the process for a fresh round of inter-ministerial consultation on the Bill to acquire a statutory status.
A statutory status for UIDAI is one of the first priorities and the draft Bill for this is expected to be circulated for inter-ministerial consultation within two weeks.
?We are ready with the Bill. If the ministries handling DBT want any change, we will accommodate those changes and then it can be taken to the cabinet for approval and subsequent presentation in Parliament for clearance,? said a senior UIDAI official.
He added that the parliamentary standing committee attached to the previous Lok Sabha had raised certain questions, such as the technology not being tested, possibility of breach of privacy and the whole Aadhaar scheme being highly expensive.
?As these didn’t relate to any particular clause of the Bill, no major change was required to be accommodated,? said the official, adding that whatever modifications have been made in the Bill were aimed at making those purposes explicit which were implicit earlier, such as Aadhaar could be used for welfare schemes and it will work as address and identity proof.
The Union Cabinet during UPA rule had cleared the modified draft Bill after the parliamentary standing committee headed by senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha trashed the earlier one.
The fresh round of inter-ministerial consultation is slated to further fine-tune the modified Bill.
The UIDAI is also seeking advice from the law ministry to address concerns raised by the supreme Court about utilisation of the Aadhaar-based platform for disbursement of money in different schemes and also other social sector initiatives. Finance minister Arun Jaitley will handle this exercise.
The government is also slated to build a concrete DBT plan in consultation with the Planning Commission, finance ministry and the administrative ministries handling the schemes. ?A reworked plan on the DBT implementation strategy is in the offing in the next few weeks,? said the official.
The fresh lease of life to the UIDAI is also expected to bring Aadhaar enrollments back on track ? they dipped to 8.12 million in June after touching 35.8 million in January ? more than 640 million people have already been allocated the Aadhaar card.
Since the launch of DBT on January 1, 2013, a total of R628 crore was transferred to the beneficiaries of 27 schemes with the help of 54,20,114 transactions by January 31, 2014.
Another sum of R3,370 crore was transferred to 2.1 crore LPG beneficiaries before it was put on hold in January this year.
