tech2 News Staff

Now that the nation has hopped on to the Aadhaar verification system and the country is using the identification system more than ever, news about Aadhaar agents charging Rs 300 for registration process is now rampant and the UIDAI chief wants to put an end to this.

How does he plan to do this? Well in an interview with News18, UIDAI chief Ajay Bushan Pandey said that strong action will be taken against offenders.

He explained that the UIDAI appoints registrars to get the work done and the registrars then appoint agencies to complete the job. Eitherways these agencies are certified by the UIDAI forming a chain of trust from level to level.

"There are some agencies that are not worthy of this trust" said Pandey referring to how easily Aadhaar data can be accessed online . The UIDAI would use the Aadhaar Act and barr these agencies for life. Moreover, he claims that punishment even includes 3 years of imprisonment.

Pandey explained that the UIDAI first blacklists the operator and then prosecutes it by the Aadhaar Act.

The news comes in the light of the Aadhaar data being easily available online.

It was just recently that a Reddit thread raised the issue, with a consolidated report on the “Aadhaar data leak”.

A simple Google search reveals thousands of databases, that contain Aadhaar numbers along with other sundry personal data according to the source of the database. These include, names, names of parents, PAN numbers, mobile numbers, religion, marks, status of rejection of applications, bank account numbers, IFSC codes and other sensitive information. None of these are a problem with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the agency that manages the Aadhaar initiative.