The Proposal of Home minister Amit Shah for a single multipurpose identity card that will do away with the need to maintain separate documentation such as Aadhaar number, electoral photo identity card, PAN and passport number etc is not an easy task.
Amit Shah, said that digitally capturing data for Census and National Population Register (NPR) via mobile app would help in merging multiple individual databases into a single multipurpose card.
“Why can’t birth and death registration be linked to electoral roll updation? If a child’s birth is registered and death not registered until 18 years, can’t he be included in electoral rolls automatically on turning 18?… But so far no final decision has been taken over the matter.
Similarly, if a death is registered by the family, should not the dead voter be automatically removed from voters’ list,” is the question.
This is not the first time a home minister has pitched for a multipurpose identification document. Former home minister L K Advani had started an exercise to capture biometrics for allotting a unique identity document to each citizen of the country.
This would link separate documents like EPIC card, PAN card, Aadhaar, etc, eliminating the need for a person to maintain multiple documents.
“If the census is properly undertaken and data maintained in digital format, certain software can be developed to include all details in one card….While the government has not firmed up any plan in this regard, I am apprising you of the potential of census and NPR exercise,” Shah said.
The NPR would be updated alongside the Census 2021 exercise— with the total budget for both adding up to Rs 12,000 crore.
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