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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Home ministry seeks data on beneficiaries
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Home ministry seeks data on beneficiaries

Ministry wants to match its National Population Register with the data of other departments

A file photo of home minister Rajnath Singh. Photo: Hindustan TimesPremium
A file photo of home minister Rajnath Singh. Photo: Hindustan Times

New Delhi: The home ministry has sought data on beneficiaries of subsidies and various state-funded schemes from ministries that are managing the welfare programmes or disbursing the subsidies.

Home secretary Anil Goswami wrote to his counterparts in the oil and gas, rural development, food and public distribution and minority affairs ministries, asking them to share the data, two senior government officials independently said. Neither official wanted to be identified since they are not authorized to speak to reporters.

The home ministry wants to match the data held by it as part of the National Population Register (NPR) with the database of these respective departments, the two officials cited above said.

The home ministry has made the request following a direction from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, the officials said.

“It is unclear why the home ministry wants this data, since disbursal of subsidies is not its function. Aadhaar is mandated to do that," one of the two officials cited above said.

While cooking gas, kerosene and diesel subsidies come under the purview of the oil and gas ministry, disbursement of funds from the Central government under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is spearheaded by the rural affairs ministry.

Further, subsidies linked to the public distribution system are disbursed by the food and public distribution department.

Mint first reported on Saturday that the government was unlikely to merge the Unique Identification Number or Aadhaar with the NPR and that it could bring back the Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer (DBT) scheme for cooking gas and other subsidies, a decision taken at a meeting chaired by Modi earlier that day.

Senior government officials had said that Saturday’s decision had overridden Thursday’s decision to form a panel of secretaries to look into the possibility of merging Aadhaar with the NPR.

The home ministry’s latest move comes even as it seeks to move ahead with a plan to identify Indian citizens via the NPR and issue citizenship cards in the next three years.

“The scheme of NPR has been reviewed and it has been decided that NPR should be completed and taken to its logical conclusion, which is the creation of NRIC (National Register of Indian Citizens) by verification of citizenship status of every usual resident in the NPR. Relevant proposal will be prepared based on the decision of the government," junior home minister Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on 8 July.

“We have to identify who is an Indian citizen and who is not. We have to take steps to identify genuine Indian citizens," home minister Rajnath Singh separately told the Lok Sabha, Press Trust of India reported. “The NPR will be prepared in a time-bound manner. NPR will identify who is an Indian citizen and who is not. All genuine Indian citizens will get a national identity card," the report quoted Singh as saying.

There has been intense speculation in recent weeks over the role of the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India), especially since the new government has decided to give a push to the NPR and the citizenship card.

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Published: 10 Jul 2014, 12:02 AM IST
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