Will not link Aadhaar with NATGRID: Ravi Shankar Prasad -Governance Now

Will not link Aadhaar with NATGRID: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Since December 2016, we have blacklisted 1,000 operators, said the minister

GN Bureau | April 11, 2017

#DBT #bank accounts #Ravi Shankar Prasad #Aadhaar #CAG #MNREGA

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that 113 crore people trust Aadhaar.

“If I talk about the poor, 60 crore people are not complaining , they are happy. When their MNREGA payment is made some strong men or ‘mukhiya' will not come to take his cut. It will go the bank account,” Prasad said, while responding to questions in the Rajya Sabha during a short duration discussion on Aadhaar— its implementation and implications.

These are the qualitative changes which Aadhaar is making in the life of the people, he said.

“I want to assure that we have proper oversight available. In the last six years, we have cancelled 34,000 operators. Since December 2016, we have blacklisted 1000 operators,” he said. If someone is found guilty of using data other than what is prescribed in the act and without user’s consent, he or she will be punished, the minister said. The section 29(2) of the Aadhaar law ensures that.

Replying to TMC MP Derek O Brien’s concern about the linkage of Aadhaar and NATGRID, a proposed intelligence database, Prasad said, “This NATGRID linking is not there. I want to deny that very emphatically because if this NATGRID comes about, it will be a violation of section 29.”

As far as concerns related to expulsion of beneficiaries is concerned, Prasad said that the section 7 of the Aadhaar Act answers those concerns: it says beneficiaries should come with Aadhaar. If they don’t, it requires beneficiaries to come with alternate identity and simultaneously enrol for Aadhaar. But no one will be denied service, he said.

On CAG’s observations on petroleum ministry’s exaggerated gains from Aadhaar based DBT, as pointed out by Jairam Ramesh of the Congress, the minister quipped, “It is very nice to see of late Jairam Ramesh’s belated appreciation of the CAG.”

He called CAG’s report “sketchy”.

“Sir, CAG has got no mechanism to make a conclusive comment that this saving is only and only because of the lowering of oil prices. The CAG is judgmental, not factual,” Prasad said.

“DBT led to complete elimination of bogus names and it can be viewed from the fact that the commercial sale of LPG cylinders increased by 9 percent in the period 2015-16. In contrast, prior to PAHAL, commercial sale was negligible,” the minister said.

He presented the following numbers regarding Aadhaar linkage/seeding:

99 percent adults have Aadhaar;

554 crore authentications by the UIDAI;

17 crore eKYC;

9.97 crore LPG subscribers linked with Aadhaar,

17.15 crore ration cards seeded with Aadhaar,

43.4 crore bank accounts linked with Aadhaar,

18.1 crore PMJDY accounts linked

1.04 crore passport and 48 lakh pensioners linked with Aadhaar.

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