Aadhaar: Digital identity to help weed out infiltrators, says Ravi Shankar

Said one can stop the benefit in the infiltrator's bank accounts if he's using fake alias

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The 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhaar can be used to "weed out" infiltrators besides checking pilferage of government doles and bogus payments, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Tuesday.

The minister while addressing a conference of IPS officers and commandants of central armed police forces said that today 100 per cent of India's adults are on Aadhaar, except in Assam where it was stopped.

"Infiltrator can be caught easily by Aadhaar. Suppose an infiltrator gets Aadhaar by the name of Somesh Prasad. Some of the neighbours complained to you that he is an infiltrator. First thing as a district officer you can do is to stop the benefit in his bank accounts. Therefore digital identity can also weed out Infiltrator quickly," Prasad said.

He added that Aadhaar is not a sign of filtration.

The minister, however, cautioned police officers from using biometrics for ordinary policing.

"Fingerprint and iris in Aadhaar can only be put out unless there is a joint secretary home approval and affirm by the committee of IT secretary, cabinet secretary and law secretary and for pure national interest. That is the privacy we have given. For ordinary policing you must not insist upon disclosure of biometrics- fingerprint and iris," he said.

Prasad said that he has had discussion with Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari to link driving licence with Aadhaar which will help check issuing of duplicate licences.

He said that the government has been able to save Rs 57,000 crore public money in the last three years with the help of Aadhaar.

The minister said that Aadhaar is a digital identity which cannot be manipulated.

The minister asked IPS officers to adopt digital technologies for efficient governance.