NEW DELHI: In a huge setback to the UPA Government, a parliamentary standing committee headed by Former Finance Minister and BJP leader Yashwant Sinha has rejected three proposed legislation, including the one intended to provide legal backing to the National Identification Authority of India, better known as ‘Aadhar’.
The other two are the Insurance Law (Amendment) Bill which had proposed to allow 49% foreign investment in insurance companies and the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill which had proposed to increase the voting rights of private investors in banks.
The committee has been particularly scathing on the draft legislation on UID calling it as “directionless” and lacking clarity on what the authority proposed to do. Asking the government to bring in a fresh Bill, the committee has said that the Bill and the project are not acceptable in the present form.
The Aadhar project, which seeks to assign a unique number to every Indian resident, has been a pet idea of the Manmohan Singh Government. The UIDAI, headed by former Infosys head Nandan Nilekani, has been set up by executive order and lacks the statutory authority, a lacunae the Bill is trying to address. The Bill was tabled in December last year. So far, 40 million persons have been issued Aadhaar numbers and more than `556 crore has already been spent on the scheme.
The committee said the project was riddled with serious lacunae in its content and execution. It has also expressed apprehension that the data collected for Aadhaar could end up in the hands of private players and misused as private organisations and individuals are involved in the implementation process. The only dissent note is learnt to be from Rashid Alvi, a congress member in the Rajya Sabha.
The UID project has already been opposed by the Finance ministry, Home ministry and the Planning Commission. Alluding to this, the committee has said that there is confusion within the government and the implementing agency on the funding, technology, privacy aspects and implementation of the project.