NEW DELHI: The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has written to all the states and the Union Territories (UTs) advising them to ensure Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and visitors by their respective jail departments.
In the communication to the states and the UTs, a copy of which is with the TNIE, the MHA said, “It had issued an advisory on 17.10.2023 requesting them to make use of the facility of Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and the visitors to prison inmates.”
More to it in the advisory the the MHA said that prison authorities “are also requested to link the prisoner's ID with the Aadhaar number of inmates on e-prisons portal and a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) prepared by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) and e-Prisons team for Aadhaar linking and authentication of prison inmates with the e-Prisons platform was also shared with the States and UTs.
The MHA said, “It has been noted that in several prisons, there is no awareness at the ground level about the above-mentioned Advisory issued by the Ministry. It is, therefore, requested that information relating to Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and visitors to prison inmates may be disseminated by the Director General and Inspector General of prisons to all concerned officials to make them aware of this provision.”
Therefore, the states and UTs are again requested to make use of “the facility of Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and the visitors to prison inmates”, keeping in view the benefits arising out of such authentication, it noted.
The MHA has also asked the states and the UTs to inform the Ministry about the status of linking of prisoners’ ID with Aadhaar and Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and their visitors in “the attached Proforma on an urgent basis”. Information in this regard may be updated and provided every three months subsequently, it added.
In its original notification, the MHA had said, “The competent authority in the Central Government has authorized this Ministry to notify under Rule 5 of the Aadhaar Authentication for Good Governance (Social Welfare, Innovation, Knowledge) Rules 2020, read with sub-clause (ii) of clause (b) of sub-section 4 of Section 4 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016, for performance of Aadhaar authentication of prison inmates and for authenticating visitors to prison inmates.” Accordingly, the requisite Gazette Notifications in this regard, were issued, it added.