The Hindu Business Line : Unique ID body working on draft legislation for statutory powers

New Delhi, Nov.5 The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is working on a draft legislation that will arm it with statutory powers to hand out a unique identification number to every Indian resident. This could be in the form of either an Act or an Ordinance.

“We are in the process of working on the legislation,” the UIDAI Chairperson, Mr Nandan Nilekani, told Business Line. At present, the UIDAI is an attached office of the Planning Commission.

Simultaneously, the UIDAI has also started dialogue with various State Governments to discuss and give presentations on the UID project, its approach and strategy. “I have met State Government representatives in nearly 10 States, and by January 2010, we expect to cover all the States,” he said.

The States where presentations on the ambitious project have already been made are Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, among others. Besides this, discussions were held with Delhi and Goa.

“The idea is to discuss the strategy, take inputs and address their concerns,” Mr Nilekani said, adding that States would not only come in as partners to the project but also have a significant role to play in its successful implementation. The UIDAI has also approached various Central Government agencies in this regard.

As per the plan, the UIDAI will be the regulatory authority managing the Central ID Data Repository (CIDR), which will issue UID numbers, update resident information and authenticate the identity of residents, as required.

In addition, the authority will partner with agencies such as Central and State Departments and private sector agencies that will be ‘registrars’ to the UIDAI. Registrars will process UID applications and connect to the CIDR to de-duplicate resident information and receive UID numbers. These registrars can either be enrollers, or will appoint agencies as enrollers who will interface with people seeking UID numbers.

The UIDAI will start issuing the identification numbers in 12-18 months, and expects to cover at least 600 million residents within five-and-a-half years. The UIDAI has made it clear that the identification number will be a proof of identity linked to demographic and biometric information but not confer citizenship.

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