Govt may kick start UID Project in Interim Budget

The government is likely to kick start the Unique Identification (UID) Project by making a provision of Rs 100 crore for this ambitious programme in the interim Budget to be tabled tomorrow in the Lok Sabha.

UID project, a Planning Commission initative, envisages assigning a unique identification number to each resident in the country.

It aims at eliminating the need for multiple identification mechanisms prevalent across various government departments. The electoral roll database would initially be taken into consideration to form the starting core database.

"The database would be further augmented using other database of public distribution system and below poverty line in the first phase and other initiatives for creating new database," according to an official note.

UID Authority of India (UIDAI) was constituted and notified recently as an attached office under the aegis of the Planning Commission. It will function under the Chief UID Commissioner of India with a rank of a Central Information Commissioner of India.

UIDAI state units would be established at the state level, headed by State UID Commissioners.

Earlier, an Empowered Group of Ministers had approved setting up of the UIDAI with an initial core team in November 2008.