NEW DELHI: Rajnath
Singh, who assumed charge as home minister on Thursday, has hinted at
the possibility of looking at the merger of the National Population
Register (NPR) exercise and Aadhar scheme. During his first interaction
with ministry officials, Singh is said to have asked for suggestions on
how the two schemes could be made "complementary" so as to eliminate any
duplicity between them.
Incidentally, the UPA’s
flagship Aadhar scheme was earlier criticized by a parliamentary
standing committee headed by BJP leader Yashwant Singh, over its
duplication with NPR exercise and security concerns arising out its
enrolment process, particularly its introductory system, and security of
Aadhar data in private hands.
The avoidable
duplicity between NPR and Aadhar schemes, both of which involve
collection of biometrics from residents of the country, was raised as
part of the detailed presentation made by home ministry officials
regarding the issues, gaps and action plans of the each of the
ministry’s divisions.
Singh, who sat through the
three-hour presentation covering areas such as internal security,
Centre-state ties, Left-wing extremism, J&K situation and border
management, is said to have asked senior ministry officials to come up
with "different, innovative and out-of-the-box" ideas to improve on all
these fronts.
Sources in the home ministry
suggested that the Registrar General of India, which is in charge of the
NPR exercise, would go back to the home minister with a detailed
presentation suggesting marriage of NPR and Aadhar schemes. The options
may include complete merger of the NPR with Aadhar under the RGI, or
division of work between NPR and Aadhar in such a way that enrolment is
done entirely by NPR while UIDAI, which runs Aadhar, carried out
de-duplication ahead of generating the unique number.
According
to sources, the first option would better since it would eliminate the
need for a legislative backup for Aadhar, or UID Bill which was shot
down earlier by the parliamentary standing committee.
Singh’s
call for "out of the box" ideas for improving the functioning of each
of home ministry’s various divisions came soon after he assumed charge
on Thursday. No sooner than he had settled in his corner North Block
office, Singh sent in regrets to the posse of mediapersons awaiting his
first comments on his priorities as home minister. He headed instead to
the MHA conference room for an exhaustive presentation on the work areas
and issues concerning the home ministry. For the next three and a half
hours, Singh heard out senior officials of the ministry’s divisions one
by one, making frequent interventions before outlining his own priority
areas.
Singh sat through presentations that
included an overview of how each division works, its budgetary
resources, gaps and what needs to be done immediately. He listed
internal security, centre-state coordination, border management,
countering Left-wing extremism, Jammu & Kashmir and security of
people of north-east origin across the country among his key priorities.
A senior official said Singh has asked individual officers to suggest
howinternal security matters can be dealt differently, innovatively
through some out-of-the-box ideas. The officials dealing with border
management were told to come up with possible scenarios for resolving
border disputes – particularly along the Bangladesh border and Sir Creek
– that would not compromise national security but the same time appear
attractive to the other side.
Insisting on the
need to maintain good Centre-state relations, Singh has sought possible
mechanisms to achieve this. He also asked officials to spell out areas,
particularly relating to inter-ministerial and Centre-state
coordination, where his intervention was required. A two-pronged
counter-Naxal approach where security and development operations would
go hand in hand and better security for people of north-eastern origin
living in metros was stressed upon. The Centre plans to issue advisories
soon asking the police of various cities to protect north-eastern
people.