Montek bats for UIDAIs full autonomy

* Plan panel had earlier called for a review of the Authoritys functioning.

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Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia will pitch with the government for extending full autonomy to the Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI),a move that will silence a section of the Plan panels own bureaucracy. The Plan panel bureaucracy has been waging a turf battle with the authority accusing it of keeping the Plan panel out of the decision-making loop.

Ahluwalia is likely to convey to the Finance Ministry on Wednesday the Plan panels willingness to delegate all powers to UIDAI without the need for any monitoring by the Planning Commission. Only last month,the Plan panel had pointed out to the finance ministry that there were no in-built checks and balances and the authority worked independent of the official procedures. It had called for a review of UIDAIs functioning. I am fully backing UIDAI on autonomy, Ahluwalia said. He,however,said that concerns raised by the Planning Commission Member Secretary Sudha Pillai were genuine.

To fix accountability,Ahluwalia said an official within the UIDAI can be made responsible for addressing issues raised by any agency that points out lapses in the authoritys functioning. He is scheduled to meet Expenditure Secretary Sumit Bose on Wednesday and a mechanism to address delegation of authority will be evolved. If there is subsequent questioning of any expenditure,the responsibility must stop at the official there (in UIDAI), he said,in a bid to end the conflict. The Plan panel bureaucracy had sought to keep a tab on UIDAIs expenditure though a notification issued in November 2009 delegated financial powers equivalent to those of a ministerial secretary to the UIDAI director general.

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On the issue of duplication of work between UIDAI and Census Commissioner on enrollment of residents for the Aadhar programme,the Plan panel wants the commissioner to use the biometric data generated by the authority to issue Multi-Purpose National Identity Cards. But the Registrar General of India has expressed its inability to use UIDAI data citing security concerns as private vendors are enrolling people. Earlier,the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI had mandated both the organisations to collect biometric data on a platform,which could be used by both the organisations.

The Plan panel is likely to circulate a Cabinet note next week to discuss duplication efforts. The panel wants the Census Commission to change its rule so that biometric data generated by UIDAI can be used by the former too. The final call will be taken by the Cabinet as the Home Ministry has a different view. It is keen that UIDAI act as a back-end for the Census Commissioner,which should enroll residents for Aadhar and issue identity cards.

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