The Planning Commission has prepared a fresh note to present it in the next cabinet meeting slated to take place on next Wednesday.
The dispute over the key issue of who will do the enrolment for UID project and carry out biometrics collection is not showing any signs of abatement with the Planning Commission all set to send a note to the Union Cabinet in response to ministry of home affairs (MHA) note
The Planning Commission has prepared a fresh note to present it in the next cabinet meeting slated to take place on next Wednesday.
Interestingly by then, Union home minister P Chidambaram would have distributed the Resident identity smart cards (RICs) in Andaman & Nicobar islands as well as in Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu before the cabinet considers the Planning Commission note on Nandan Nilekani’s Aadhaar.
The first lot of the RICs, competitor of Nilekani’s UID card, will be distributed on Saturday at Porthapur village in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Both RIC and UID cards serve broadly the same purpose of getting services to targeted population and keep a check on internal security.
Because of its geographical sensitivity A&N Islands have been chosen by the MHA to distribute the first lot of 2.56 lakh RIC cards.
RIC is a smartcard studded with 64 KB microprocessor chip that will have detailed description of the usual resident (for at least six months) of an area including biometrics details like impression of all ten fingers and iris scan.
RIC is part of the National Population Register (NPR) for nine coastal states of Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal and four union territories of A&N Islands, Daman & Diu, Puducherry and Lakshadweep. Conceptualized for coastal states after 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, the NPR was later extended to the whole of India.
But the turf battle that has taken political overtones can kick fresh dust next week when the Planning Commission would present the status of the Aadhaar project in the Union Cabinet apparently in response to the letter that Chidambaram wrote on Thursday to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
“On Wednesday, we are taking the note to the Cabinet, we have no problems if the MHA wants to do it differently,” Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today without referring as to what his department would be presenting.
But how the turf battle will end remains to be seen as there cannot be two separate unique numbers - RIC and UID.
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