UIDAI told to allay fears about Aadhaar through educational programmes

SC had last month upheld the scheme's constitutional validity but restricted the government's push to make it mandatory for various services

A Parliamentary panel Monday told top government officials, including the UIDAI CEO, to allay people's fear about Aadhaar by holding educational programmes across the country, sources said.

The Supreme Court had last month upheld the scheme's constitutional validity but restricted the government's push to make it mandatory for various services.

The parliamentary standing committee on IT headed by BJP MP Anurag Thakur had then summoned Monday UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey and the MEITY secretary.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is a statutory authority which implements the Aadhaar project and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is its nodal ministry.

During the meeting, Thakur asked the UIDAI to conduct a widespread IEC (Information, Education, and Communication) programme to allay people's concerns over Aadhaar and ensure that they reap the benefits of this system, a source present in the meeting said.

The panel sought details and explanations over the various allegations of misuse of data from the UIDAI CEO, the source said.

Members also raised questions about the concerns over privacy, leaking of sensitive personal data, exclusion of citizens from government benefits over non-availability of Aadhaar card among others.

The committee was given a detailed presentation about the concerns related to the scheme and it expressed satisfaction over the actions undertaken by the government, the source added.