Battle between UIDAI and home ministry ends

Data of people;covered;by the Unique Identification Authority of India will be used for the National Population Register

The turf war between the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) headed by Nandan Nilekani and the Union home ministry, which is creating the National Population Register, over collecting biometric data of Indian citizens has finally ended. On January 27, the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI allowed both UIDAI and the home ministry to go ahead with biometric data collection (iris scan and fingerprints) simultaneously.

The committee after detailed deliberations noted that the purposes of the UIDAI and the National Population Register (NPR) are different. So, they have allowed both the NPR and UIDAI to carry on with their with enrollment simultaneously, with provisions to eliminate information overlap.

NPR issues resident identity (smart) cards

	On January 21, Union home minister P Chidambaram launched distribution of resident identity (smart) cards (RIC), a smart card with 64 KB micro processor chip at a function in Porthrapur village in Port Blair. The present lot of smart cards would be distributed to 256,000 people in the coastal region of the country. The cards have been prepared by the National Population Register, a data that was created during the Census operations of 2011, by the Registrar General and the Census Commissioner of India. The register would have the data of every person enumerated during the Census operations, irrespective of age. It would also have the biometric data of every person of age 15 years and above. At present, the home ministry has created NPR for coastal areas of 9 maritime states and 4 Union Territoriess. These include Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa. The data is meant to strengthen security along the coastline of the country. The approved cost of the scheme is Rs 216.31 crore. Under the project, NPR officials collected demographic data of 12 million persons and biometrics of 7.5 million persons in 3,331 coastal villages. Till January 20 this year, 500,000 identity cards have been issued.