Aadhaar Bill introduced as a money bill in Lok Sabha

New Delhi: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on Thursday set the ball rolling on its plans to reset the subsidies regime by making Aadhaar the central pillar.

It introduced the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha, which seeks to make the use of Aadhaar mandatory for availing government subsidies but at the same time tries to address concerns regarding privacy and protection of personal information.

Violation of privacy and protection of biometric data has been one of the main criticisms of the Aadhaar programme.

The bill, which has been tabled as a money bill in Lok Sabha, will provide statutory backing to Aadhaar. Consequently, its fate will not be decided, like in the case of other key legislations, by the inability of the NDA to muster a majority in the Rajya Sabha.

The proposed legislation will also address the uncertainty surrounding the project after the Supreme Court restricted the use of the Aadhaar number until a constitution bench delivers its verdict on a number of cases challenging the mandatory use of Aadhaar in government schemes and rules on the issue of privacy violation.

The bill has sought to address many provisions related to privacy and security of the biometric information provided. The bill provides that the biometric information collected will be an electronic record and will be classified as “sensitive personal data or information” as per the provisions of the Information technology act.

The bill prohibits the sharing of the core biometric information in any form. However, the information about the identity of an individual, other than core biometric information, can be shared subject to certain conditions. The bill also mandates the enrolling agency to inform the individual undergoing enrolment on how the data will be used and with who it will be shared.

It also provides provisions wherein institutions after paying a fee can authenticate the identity of a person. But for this, the institution should have the consent of the Aadhaar holder.

It also directs the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to have sufficient security of identity information and authentication record of individuals. It directs UIDAI to ensure that agencies, consultants and its employees are bound by confidentiality and do not leak any information.

To ensure that the people excluded from Aadhaar’s fold is minimum, the bill also talks about special measures that will be undertaken by the Authority to issue numbers to women, nomadic tribes, street dwellers, senior citizens, persons with disability and unskilled and unorganized workers.

S.L. Rao, Bengaluru-based sociologist and former director general of the National Council for Applied Economic Research, said using Aadhaar to identify people is a very good move.

“But one problem remains. Everyone will get Aadhaar but not everyone is entitled for subsidies. A tehsildaar in every village makes the list of the beneficiaries. So corrupt tehsildaars may ensure that the deserving miss out,” he said.

“The bill is quite far reaching and broad in its ambit. It seems cognizant of the data security issues, entrusting it to the UIDAI. It is also aware of the data protection and privacy issues. But my primary concerns are twofold—in theory when a bill says it’s important to maintain confidentiality, it sounds very fancy. But it’s very difficult in practice. There should have been some special provision making the officials of the UIDAI more responsible so that no data is leaked by them,” said Rahul Singh, a research scholar at Oxford University who has worked with several regulatory authorities in India.

“The second is to ensure that those heading these authorities are competent. One of the ways to do that is reduce the age of retirement to 60, so that it doesn’t become yet another avenue for civil servants to work at after retirement,” he said.

Most of the government’s social security schemes and digital initiatives are critically dependent on use of the Aadhaar unique identity number. The number will also form the cornerstone of India’s move towards a cashless economy.

By introducing the bill as a money bill, the government will not be handicapped by its strength in the Rajya Sabha. This is because money bills can be introduced only in the Lok Sabha. The Rajya Sabha cannot make amendments to a money bill passed by the Lok Sabha and can only make recommendations. It also has to return money bills to the Lok Sabha within 14 days from the date of their receipt, thus ensuring a time-bound process. Such bills also cannot be referred to a joint committee of Parliament, as per details available on the Parliament’s website.

Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress party in Lok Sabha, objected to the bill being introduced as a money bill. “We are ready to cooperate on the Bill but it should not come as a money bill. They are doing this to avoid Rajya Sabha. You (government) have made your intention clear.”

“This Bill is substantially different from what the colleagues are talking about. The substance of the Bill is that whoever gets subsidies, will have to produce Aadhar. This is in accordance with Article 110. It is upto the Speaker now to decide whether it is accordance or not,” finance minister Arun Jaitley said in response to Congress reactions.

The bill will provide for “good governance, efficient, transparent, and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services, the expenditure for which is incurred from the Consolidated Fund of India, to individuals residing in India through assigning of unique identity numbers to such individuals..”, a brief summary of the bill said.