In Arunachal Pradesh, little more than 11 lakh people have been brought under the Aadhaar enrolment, with 96.26 per cent Aadhaar enrolment in Lohit district, followed by Tirap and East Siang districts.
When Arunachal Pradesh draws flak off and on for slow implementation of projects, the achievement under the ongoing Unique Identification Authority of India (UDAI) scheme is encouraging and appreciable.
It may be reiterated that as per Section 7 of the Aadhaar Act of 2016, the central government or state government may use Aadhaar as an identifier for delivery of various subsidies, benefits or services to the residents, for which the expenditure is incurred from or the receipt from there forms part of the Consolidated Fund of India.
On the other hand, it seems that the Central Government is still undecided about the final deadline for linking Aadhaar with various schemes and services as it had requested the Supreme Court to put off hearing on the legality of Aadhaar to next year, with an assurance that it would extend the deadline to link the Aadhaar with various services by March next.
It may take time to settle an issue related to privacy rights of citizens, but while implementing a scheme like Aadhaar, the competent authorities must have mechanism to ensure that personal data and information are well protected.