New Delhi: An Aadhaar number will now be sufficient for the universal identification of the citizen’s identity and can be used to access services like banking facilities.
Clearing the air over the authenticity of the Aadhar number allotted to citizens, the home ministry has said that it can facilitate “anytime, anywhere, anyhow” authentication to its beneficiaries.
Coming out in full support of the Aadhaar scheme, the home ministry has said that since one Aadhaar number is allotted to only one person, it allows universal verification of one’s identity even as it will enable the deprived and needy people to access services like banking facilities.
“Since Aadhaar is based on the demographic and biometric information of an individual, it eliminates the threat of any fraud and bogus activity.
“Aadhaar will provide its possessor with universal identification. (It) will facilitate ‘anytime, anywhere, anyhow’ authentication to its beneficiaries (and) be a single source of identity verification,” the MHA has said in its latest letter to all state governments.
The home ministry’s move has come after the UPA government’s dilly-dallying on the issue. It may be recalled that the home ministry under the UPA regime during the tenures of Sushilkumar Shinde and P. Chidambaram had raised concerns over the sanctity of the Unique Identification Authority of India’s database.
The Union home ministry had raised concerns over supporting documents submitted by people as proof of identity and proof of address for getting an Aadhaar number.
Now, in a complete change of stand, in its latest letter to states, the home ministry has made it clear that the Aadhar number can be used at multiple places to prove one’s identity very easily even as it feels that there are multifold benefits of having an Aadhaar number.
“Aadhaar will give migrants universal mobility of identity. The government can now provide services and facilities to people, especially in the rural areas, in a more effective manner.
“As more and more government services are going to be linked to Aadhaar, it would be of utility to have an Aadhaar card. Aadhaar will hence help the poor to take the benefits or the facilities provided to them by the government which could not be accessed by (them) earlier. Aadhaar will thus become the simplest way of proving one’s identity,” the ministry said.
A person’s Aadhaar number can be used while opening a bank account as it meets the “Know Your Customer” norms of the RBI.
The card can also be used for booking tickets online, applying for passport and at many other places where there is a need to provide some proof of identity.
Notably, the Aadhaar and the National Population Register are national identity programmes of the Central government. The Aadhar scheme is being implemented by the UIDAI.
The NPR is prepared by the Registrar General of India under the home ministry.
“Both collect biometric data covering 10 finger prints, iris scan of both eyes and a photograph. The identity and address of the resident are also identified during the enrolment process.
“Aadhaar provides a unique identity number to every resident in the country. The NPR database is sent to the UIDAI for Aadhaar de-duplication and generating Unique Identity numbers,” the home ministry said.
