Identity crisis: End of road for Aadhaar

New Delhi: With no representation from the Planning Commission in the reconstituted Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), the Modi government has sounded the death knell for the UPA’s ambitious unique ID project.

The plan panel used to be the secretariat for the UIDAI programme and all proposals for its smooth functioning were taken to the Cabinet by the panel.

A sources in the government said, “The plan panel has so far functioned as the financial and administrative controller of the UIDAI. This was so because the authority does not have legal backing. Under the given scheme of things, the deputy chairman of the panel used to present UIDAI proposal in the Cabinet.”

Since the newly reconstituted CCEA does not have representation from the planning commission, this could well be seen as the end of the road for the UPA’s cherished programme.

The Modi government first scrapped the Cabinet committee on UIDAI and, in its official communication, said that the issues relating to it would be dealt in the CCEA. But now, by excluding the Planning Commission’s representation in the CCEA, the government has “virtually sealed the fate of UIDAI,” sources said.  

Even home minister Rajnath Singh, though indirectly, had hinted at ending the role of UIDAI earlier this week when he asked for the long-pending proposal for issuance of national identity cards to be brought for “approval at the earliest.”

The Union home ministry, is an official statement had said, “The home minister directed that effective steps be taken to take the project to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of the national register of Indian citizens. He instructed that all necessary proposals, including updating the database through linkages with birth and death registration system, and the issuance of national identity cards to citizens be brought for approval at the earliest.”