New Delhi: The ongoing conflict between the

Plan panel and the Home Ministry over issuance of chip-based

smart cards to all residents was put to rest on Friday as the

government cleared the UIDAI`s proposal to enroll an extra 40

crore people in 16 states, while the biometrics in other

states will be collected under the NPR project.

While the government has cleared additional Rs 5,791.74

crore for the UIDAI, the Nandan Nilekani-led UIDAI has assured

that the security concerns raised by the Home Ministry would

be addressed.

The entire process by the two agencies will be completed

by June next year.

"We will review the security concerns in the next six to

eight weeks and begin the process of collection of data from

April," Nilekani told reporters here after his proposal was

cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Unique Identification

Authority of India (UIDAI).

Briefing reporters, Home Minister P Chidambaram said

there was no difference with the Planning Commission over the

issuance of the cards.

However, in case of "discrepancies between UIDAI data and

NPR data, NPR will prevail," Chidambaram said and added the

new system is as secure as humanly possible.

"Aadhaar (issued by UIDAI) is voluntary and NPR is

mandatory...It is a government programme," Chidambaram said

and maintained that the issue of duplicacy of the data has

been avoided.

"Most avoidable duplication and avoidable costs have been

avoided," he said and explained that residents who had been

issued "Aadhaar" number issued by UIDAI will not have to give

their bio-metrics again for the NPR.

The chip-based Multipurpose National Identity Card issued

by the NPR will capture 15 details of every individual where

as the UIDAI collects five fields.

Chidambaram said adequate precautions have been taken to

avoid duplication in data collection. "However, in a country

of 1.2 billion people, small overlap is unavoidable."

He said the government will come out with a bill to give

statutory backing to National Population Register (NPR),

implemented by Registrar General of India (RGI).

The NPR-- the digital database of residents under

construction-- will continue enrollment as envisaged, but if

in the course of enrollment, a person indicates he/she is

already enrolled for Aadhaar, the biometric data will not be

captured by NPR, Chidambaram said.

Instead, the Aadhaar number/enrollment number will be

recorded in NPR and the biometric data will be sourced from

the UIDAI, he added.

Later in a statement, the government said, "detailed

protocols will be worked out by Inter Ministerial

Co-ordination Committee (IMCC) already constituted by the

Ministry of Home Affairs so as to smoothly implement this

simultaneous effort."

The modalities and detailed protocol for smooth

implementation of simultaneous enrollment by the Non-RGI

Registry of UIDAI and the RGI will be finalised by the IMCC

within the overall directions given by the Cabinet

Committee on UIDAI.

The financial proposal relating to Aadhaar enrollments of

additional 40 crore will be separately placed before the

Expenditure Finance Committee. Pending this approval, UIDAI is

allowed to continue Aadhaar enrollment beyond 20 crore so that

the momentum of the field formations is not lost. Provision

will be made in the budget for 2012-13 in anticipation

thereof, the statement said.

The additional cost for enrollment and logistics

pertaining to printing and delivery of Aadhaar letters in

respect of the 40 crore additional enrollments will be brought

before the Expenditure Finance Committee for their

recommendation and to the Cabinet Cabinet on UIDAI for

approval, it added.

PTI