http://paper.li/Bunibroto/1309952288/2011/09/30
Actually in the name of UIDAI Battle of Chidambaram and Pranab has just started.
“The Planning Commission has raised questions about the administrative structure of the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) and called for the appointment of an independent financial advisor to monitor its finances and transactions, days after the finance ministry rejected the authority's Rs 15,000 crore funding proposal.”- Economic times
Nilekani shot Back, “My powers have been delegated by the Prime minister,” Unique Identification Development Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nilekani said when asked whether the authority was on a collision course with the Planning Commission. “We are an attached office of the Planning Commission and by series of government orders, several authorities have been delegated to us,” he said.
"We are working within the powers granted to us. If somebody feels that power should be different, then that is a different matter," he pointed out.
On transparency issue, Nilekani said: "We follow every government process and procurement procedures to the key. We set the highest standards of transparency and integrity in our operations."
"We are working in the government system. We have tight financial controls. Everything is on our website," Nilekani added.
On transparency issue, Nilekani said: "We follow every government process and procurement procedures to the key. We set the highest standards of transparency and integrity in our operations."
"We are working in the government system. We have tight financial controls. Everything is on our website," Nilekani added.
The Reserve Bank says "Aadhaar is not good enough to open a bank account – for its address proof rigors are skimpier than what the central bank has mandated in its know-your-customer (KYC) rules. Even without Aadhaar, KYC rules are giving nightmares to customers anyway.”
The home ministry says the data collected by the Unique ID project is not good enough for its own National Population Register (NPR) – a project to provide citizens with identity cards. A Business Standard report says the home ministry wants to collect its own data since it finds the Unique ID Authority of India’s (UIDAI’s) data unreliable. It also thinks iris scanning is a waste of money.
While the home ministry’s NPR-cum-national identity cards project is budgeted to cost Rs 13,438 crore, UIDAI’s project for collecting biometric information from every resident India is to cost Rs 17,864 crore.
That’s a total cost of Rs 31,302 crore for two ID projects that are essentially gathering the same data from the same people.
After all the talk of differences between Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram, two other cabinet minister rank officials of the government seem to be engaged in a battle.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has complained to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on how Nandan Nilekani led Unique Identification Authority is doubling the cost of the UID scheme.
He has also written to the home minister objecting to methods adopted to collect citizen biometrics like fingerprints and iris scans in the aadhar or unique identification number scheme.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia has complained to Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on how Nandan Nilekani led Unique Identification Authority is doubling the cost of the UID scheme.
He has also written to the home minister objecting to methods adopted to collect citizen biometrics like fingerprints and iris scans in the aadhar or unique identification number scheme.
Some say it is a classic instance of what can go wrong when someone from the private sector is brought into the government. For instance, Mr Nilekani is supposed to report to the home ministry but apparently on many occasions he has gone straight to the finance ministry to get approval. That doesn’t go down well with the bureaucrats in there.
Chidambaram and Nilekani are planning to spend real money to do essentially the same thing. First post comments, “Dr Manmohan Singh, here’s a scam you can take credit for nipping in the bud”
Mr Ahluwalia said, “I am very concerned at totally misleading reports about the views of the Planning Commission on UIDAI. We strongly support the UIDAI in its efforts to issue Aadhar numbers. This holds out the promise of major governance reforms in all the aam aadmi schemes of the government and will help minimise leakages. We have stated this very clearly in our approach to the Twelfth Plan. The problem that has arisen is that the Cabinet had authorised the UIDAI to issue numbers and collect biometrics in a manner which ensured no duplication with the work of the RGI in preparing the citizen register. Efforts have been mad to avoid duplication but RGI has now taken the view that they cannot use the data collected by UIDAI. Nandan and I had made suggestions how to bridge the gap. I still think it is possible. But obviously the matter will go to Cabinet for a final resolution. There is no rethinking on the need for and importance of the Aadhaar initiative. "
















