After the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Aadhaar card is not mandatory for making use of benefits and services provided by the Government, the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Finance Yashwant Sinha has questioned the delay in bringing a new law to give statutory status to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
The committee has submitted its report on the National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010. “Almost two years have elapsed since the submission of the report of the Committee. The Government is yet to respond,” said Sinha, who is a BJP MP from Hazaribagh (Jharkhand).
He also alleged that following the apex court order on the UID issue, the Government as usual had tried to spread confusion.
He said that subsequent to the presentation of the Report on the Bill, the Committee had also reiterated in their successive reports on the budgetary demands for grants (2012 and 2013) of the Ministry of Planning that the Government must review the provisions contained in the Bill and accordingly bring forth a fresh legislation before Parliament at the earliest, incorporating the suggestions made by the Committee.
In its report, the Committee pointed out certain serious lacunae and other areas of concern. It was surprised that while the country is, on one hand, facing a serious problem of illegal immigrants and infiltrations from across the borders, the said Bill proposes to entitle every resident to obtain an Aadhaar number, part from entitling such other category of individuals as may be notified from time to time.
“This would, they apprehended, make even illegal immigrants entitled for Aadhaar number,” the report said.