Short duration discussion on Aadhaar taken up in Rajya Sabha

Replying to a short duration discussion on the Aadhaar in the Rajya Sabha, the government on Monday said that the mechanism of the Aadhar system is robust and safe and its data secure.

Union Information Technology and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said stringent provisions are in place to to protect the privacy of bio-metric data, and added that even the Supreme Court has declared it to be a very good system.

He said, licences of 34,000 operators have been suspended for not following UIDAI guidelines . He assured the House that no person will be denied of his or benefits for want of an Aadhaar number but he will be required to apply for it.

He informed the Upper House that 113 crore Aadhaar cards have been issued so far and these are being used for various purposes, including LPG subsidy, payment of MGNREGA wages and verification of SIM cards.

Earlier, initiating the discussion, Independent member Rajeev Chandrasekhar described Aadhaar as an unverified data base. He asked the government what measures are being taken to ensure its security. He suggested to make Aadhaar a robust and authenticated document. Jairam Ramesh of the Congress said, it should not be made mandatory.

He said, UPA government did not consider Aadhaar as an instrument. Dr. Vinay P Sahasrabuddhe of the BJP said, people got an identity through Aadhaar. He suggested in case of woman after her marriage, the names of her parents should be added to the Aadhaar Card. He alleged that Public distribution System lobby and hawala lobby are against Aadhaar system.