A meeting on Wednesday of the Union Cabinet Committee to decide the fate of UIDAI project in the backdrop of differences between the Home Ministry and the Planning Commission has been postponed.

The Committee was to meet on wednesday to take the final decision on the proposal to give statutory powers to Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI to issue national identity cards to the entire population instead of the mandated 200 million.

"The Cabinet Committee meeting on Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project has been postponed and the decision regarding its meeting will be taken later on," an official said.

The Planning Commission and the Home Ministry are locked in a hard tussle over the unique identification number project and both of them had taken the issue to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for a solution.

The government, the source said, will have to take a decision soon as UIDAI is likely to complete the mandate of enrolling 200 million residents even before the deadline of March 31 this year.

At the centre of the controversy is the collection of bio-metric data of all residents.

While the Home Ministry has maintained that the Registrar General of India (RGI) under it has been mandated to collect the data through the NPR, the Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI has also been authorised to gather the information.

Home Minister P Chidambaram has sought clarity on the status on who will capture bio-metric data -- RGI or UIDAI. The Home Ministry feels the data collected by UIDAI was not secure as it is not verified by a government servant.

The data collection by UIDAI has been done by hired organisations which is a cause of concern for the Home Minister. The body has already enrolled 170 million residents.

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has thrown his full weight behind the UIDAI saying the project should continue.