NEW DELHI: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) headed by Congress MP K C Venugopal on Thursday called for review of the functioning of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and raised concerns over erroneous Aadhaar details, flagging that this denies people access to government benefits.“This is a common man’s issue. We flagged various problems and have raised several questions,” Venugopal told the press after the meeting.Venugopal said Aadhaar-related issues directly affect common people and require serious attention, especially those linked to biometric verification. The panel will examine the matter in detail.The committee, sources said, told the authorities to put out a circular at the earliest to inform people of the requirements to get Aadhaar and look into simplifying the process. The panel also recorded briefings from officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, and the UIDAI.According to sources, several MPs raised concerns of data breach, to which the UIDAI officials replied that their central repository is unbreachable.Sources said some MPs were of the view that since Aadhaar is considered residency proof and does not certify one’s citizenship, authorities should reconsider if this alone should be the basis for identifying eligible beneficiaries of government welfare schemes.Only an Indian citizen should be entitled to government benefits, a source said, noting that scandals related to people with fake documents getting Aadhaar have often come to light.
Source link
