In the next couple of days, the central Government is set to introduce new bill to the parliament which will give statutory status to Aadhar. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his speech while announcing the Union Budget 2016-17 said
“I will introduce in one or two days. It is ready. I have also given notice. We will undertake significant reforms, such as the enactment of a law to ensure that all government benefits are conferred upon persons who deserve it, by giving a statutory backing to the Aadhar platform,”
Through this initiative of giving statutory status to Aadhar it will provide a strong legal foundation to expand its use for a wider range of developmental purpose. It has been suggested that all benefits services and subsides from consolidated funds should be made through Aadhar and ensure that it directly reach the needy.
“First, we will introduce the targeted delivery of financial and other subsidiary benefits services by using the Aadhaar framework. The bill will be introduced in the current budget session of Parliament,” the minister said.
Till date more than 98 crore Aadhaar numbers have been created. Every day an average of 26 lakh biometric and more than 1.5 lakh e-KYC transactions are made. Aadhaar numbers have been seeded in 11.19 crore DBTL accounts out of aggregate 16.5 crore DBTL recipients. Moreover as of now, a National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010, pending in the Rajya Sabha.
Adv. Mikky Sudhakaran