Click to play videoNew Delhi: The row between Nandan Nilekani and Home Minister P Chidambaram over the Unique ID project has intensified. With both the Planning Commission, which is backing Nilekani, and the Home Ministry staking claim to carry out the multi-crore project, the matter has now reached the PMO. At stake is several thousand crores of the tax payers’ money.
Who should enrol citizens for an identity card? Both the Planning Commission and the Home Ministry have staked claim to carry out the project.
Said Montek Singh Ahluwalia, "I can only confirm that we are moving a note for the cabinet."
The Planning Commission is batting for Nandan Nilekani's UIDAI while the Home Ministry says that this is the job of the Registrar General of India.
In a terse letter to the Cabinet secretary, the Home secretary has said the UIDAI sees the MHA data as competition and is holding up the project.
The Home Ministry says it has been mandated to collect data and biometrics and that the UIDAI's original mandate was to issue a unique identity number to the MHA's data.
And while the UIDAI has been mandated to collect data of 20 crore Indians, it now wants to collect data for the entire country.
The UIDAI, meanwhile, has said that sole dependence on the MHA for data will slow down the project.
While the MHA hopes to spend Rs 6649 crore on the entire project, the Planning Commission estimates the UIDAI will spend around Rs 14800 crore.
The Home Minister has written to the Prime Minister to play referee.
It is yet another turf battle between two wings of the government, involving the UPA's pet project a battle that also involves several thousand crores of the tax payers’ money. But it is a controversy that's exposed the way decisions are made in government and also embarrassed the UPA.
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