Par Panel asks govt for fresh law to give legality to UIDAI

Concerned over the functioning of UIDAI in its current form, a Parliamentary Panel today asked the government to come out with a fresh legislation to provide legality to the Authority.
"The Committee strongly feel that in the absence of legislation, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is discharging its functions without any legal basis," the Standing Committee on Finance headed by BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said while presenting a report in Parliament.
The Committee in its earlier reports had urged the government to reconsider and review the UID scheme to bring a fresh legislation before Parliament.
The Committee said it is also concerned that during the last three financial years (up to January, 2013), a huge sum of Rs 2,342 crore has been spent on the scheme and Rs 2,620 crore has been allocated in BE 2013-14, out of which Rs 1,040 crore is earmarked for 'Enrolement Authentication and Updation' pending legislative sanction of the scheme.

The Committee has asked about cost per card incurred by the government to generate Aadhaar cards by UIDAI.
That apart, the report said, despite an average growth rate of 7.9 per cent in the 11th Five Year Plan, there was no substantial increase in employment opportunities.

"The Committee are of the view that skill development is a highly serious area of concern and need to be given priority ... The mismatch in terms of demand and supply of skilled workforce is widening rapidly."
It said the government needs to more than double its existing skill training capacity of 45 lakh to achieve the ambitious target of skilling 5 crore people in the 12th Plan (2012-17) including 90 lakh in 2013-14.

"The Committee also recommend that like Right to Education there should be compulsory skill development programme," it said.
The Committee was, however, satisfied that 173 of centrally sponsored schemes (CSSs) at the end of 11th Plan will be restructured into 70 schemes. It will help streamline, restructure and rationalise such schemes to enhance their productiveness, it added.