Govt approves Rs 8,800 crore for Aadhaar project

New Delhi: The finance ministry has approved a budget of Rs 8,814.75 crore for the nodal agency executing the government’s Aadhaar project, under which all residents of India will be provided unique identification (UID) numbers.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will use the money to pay registrars who are enrolling people for Aadhaar, as well as to build the project’s technical systems.

The UIDAI, which pays registrars Rs 50 per enrolment, is mandated to enrol 200 million people until March. The national population register (NPR) is supposed to carry out enrolments after that.

The UIDAI had recently demanded Rs 17,863.9 crore along with the mandate to enrol the country’s entire population of 1.2 billion.

The expenditure finance committee approved the budget in a meeting on 15 September, said a finance ministry official, asking not to be identified.

A UIDAI official confirmed the development, requesting anonymity.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had sanctioned Rs 120 crore for the UIDAI project in the budget for fiscal 2010, and Rs 1,900 crore for fiscal 2011.

The agency spent Rs 268.41 crore in the last fiscal and Rs 174.29 crore until September this year, according to data available on its website. It has so far enrolled 100 million people and issued UID numbers to half of them.

surabhi.a@livemint.com