Dividing UID work not best of options
The discord between the Union home ministry (under which is run the National Population Register) and the Planning Commission (under whose administrative supervision comes the Unique Identity Authority of India, or UIDAI) over which of the two outfits should issue the UID (unique identity) number based on biometric information of individuals — that relates to the iris and fingerprints and is said to be foolproof — known as the “Adhar” was resolved in a peculiarly Indian way on Friday: the Union Cabinet just decided to keep both sides happy, without being unduly bothered by legality.
Employing the famous Indian technique — not rocking the boat, not taking the bull by the horns — to resolve a knotty issue should have been expected. After all, ranged on the UIDAI side was, in effect, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself although the chairman of the body is Nandan Nilekani. The PM had brought in the former Infosys boss, backed his UID idea, and given him the rank of minister. On the other side was home minister P. Chidambaram. So, the compromise formula is that the two will do 50 per cent of the work each: divide up the country between themselves and record the biometric data of individuals in their respective half. In the end, by June 2013, every Indian is supposed to have a UID. There is a catch in this, however.
Under the law of the land, the collection of data by the NPR is mandatory, for the NPR arises from the national census. On the other hand, an individual’s decision to submit himself to the Adhar exercise being conducted by the UIDAI is purely voluntary — he cannot be made to comply, unlike in the NPR case. So, what happens to the data collected in the UIDAI zone, where the NPR people have not visited? Will the output produced by the UIDAI’s efforts be deemed to be that of NPR if only to satisfy the requirements of the law? It is not clear how Parliament will view all this. The national census — hence the NPR — flows from its authority, but not the UIDAI, which stems from an executive order of the government. In the event that the government loses a legal challenge to the idea of the NPR producing the UID in respect of just half the country, would the public money spent on the UIDAI’s efforts — several thousand crore rupees — be deemed to be a waste?
The UID is a good idea. It is an instrument that can enhance the effectiveness of the public delivery of subsidies and money payments to the needy under various government schemes, and help bypass middlemen. But did it have to be done by two distinct clashing authorities?
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