The government has spent crores of rupees on generating an Aadhaar-card based identification system, but has no idea how many cards have been issued and the expense it has incurred on each of these cards. This was the response from the office of the assistant director general of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), to a Right To Information (RTI) query filed by activist Anil Galgali.
A copy of the notification dated September 20, 2019, mentioning the estimated target of cards to be issued was provided, but it did not mention the total number of cards issued and distributed so far. Further, Galgali’s application was transferred to the UIDAI’s finance department for the expenses incurred in making the cards.
Moreover, the report stated, the assistant director general of the finance and accounts division, Syed Ravish Ali, had made it clear the information sought was not available with his department. But on UIDAI’s website, the details of the cards generated were available. While the website says 124,62,21,866 cards have been generated as of now, there is no information on the expense incurred per card.
According to Galgali, instead of answering the questions he has raised in his application, the UIDAI has been giving misleading replies. He has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, urging him to make the information public in a language which is understood by the public.
