MPs flag concern over issuance of Aadhaar to illegal migrants, data leak during Parl panel meet
Amid serious concerns raised by several lawmakers over issuance of Aadhaar to several probable migrants from outside the country, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Thursday was asked to ensure that it is only provided to bonafide citizens of the country.
These concerns were flagged during the meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament, headed by Congress Lok Sabha MP KC Venugopal, where UIDAI and officials of the ministry of IT and electronics were called to depose before it on the issue of “Functioning of Unique Identification Authority of India".
Sources aware of the development said some members mentioned that every country is serious about legal migration and it is the duty of state to provide facilities only to its citizens.
They further said that it should be ensured that Aadhaar is provided only to citizens and not to ‘residents’, which could also contain illegal immigrants.
The UIDAI authorities are learnt to have stated that efforts are being made to streamline the system of issuance of Aadhaar further. They are learnt to have said that the role of private agencies is being curtailed and norms are being made stringent in some respects to ensure that government agencies issue them.
Sources further informed that several opposition members during the meeting, raised the issue of difficulties being faced by people in getting corrections done in Aadhaar. Citing an instance, a member said that older people face problem if there is mismatch in their date of birth on school certificates as well as in Aadhaar cards.
Sources said several MPs also cited various reports to underline the dangers of data leaks. The UIDAI officials claimed that their central repository is unbreachable, and their investigations have shown that whatever leak has been reported has come from the enrolment centres. They added that UIDAI has strengthened the monitoring mechanism to plug all holes.
Some estimates suggest that there are more Aadhaar cards currently in use than the total population of the country, indicating possible duplications as well as delays in deactivating the cards of the deceased.
The UIDAI officials said in the case of the deceased, it is dependent on voluntary deactivation. The PAC directed the UIDAI to act proactively to clean up the list of Aadhaar card holders.
Many members expressed concerns including the high rate of failure of Aadhaar biometric verification which can lead to many beneficiaries being excluded from social welfare schemes.
Across party lines, MPs on the committee pointed out that biometric verification failure is a serious issue since the majority of the government’s social welfare schemes are tied directly to Aadhaar.
This has led to many eligible beneficiaries being prevented from receiving food rations or jobs, under schemes such as the Public Distribution System or the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, because their biometric data no longer matches the UIDAI record.
Meanwhile UIDAI has taken proactive measures to maintain the accuracy and integrity of the Aadhaar database by deactivating Aadhaar numbers of deceased persons. Under the measures, UIDAI has collaborated with the Registrar General of India to access 1.55 crore death records for Aadhaar deactivation.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, in a statement, said that the Registrar General of India (RGI) has provided approximately 1.55 crore death records to UIDAI of 24 States and Union Territories using the Civil Registration System (CRS).
After due validation, around 1.17 crore Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated. It added that a similar exercise is continuing with non-CRS States and Union Territories. About 6.7 lakh death records have been received so far, and deactivation is in progress.
India