The UIDAI has recapitulated and asked the government departments/Ministries and State/UT governments to ensure that no essential service or benefit is denied to a genuine beneficiary for the want of Aadhaar whether be it medical help, hospitalisation, school admission or ration through PDS. The need for this reiteration arose in response to the prevailing media reports in which it has been peddled that the want of Aadhaar has resulted in denial of certain essential services by lower level staffs causing grave inconvenience to people.
The National Identification Authority, has issued exception handling regulations, vide its circular dated 24-10-2017, provides for a mechanism for extending benefits to beneficiaries who do not posses Aadhaar or in cases where Aadhaar authentication is not successful due to any reason, in which case the agency or department has to provide the service as per Section 7 of Aadhaar Act, 2016 and OM dated 19-12-2017 (issued by the Cabinet Secretariat) by using alternate means of identification and recording them in exception registers which should be audited periodically by the higher authorities.
The UIDAI made a statement asserting that Section 7 of Aadhaar Act 2016 has clear provision for no exclusion – no denials, and that under no circumstance, anyone can be denied a service just because he/she doesn’t have an Aadhaar, and further averred that if a complaint can be lodged for such unlawful denials, with the higher authorities of a department, when an official of the said department denies service for the lack of Aadhaar or lack of successful verification due to technical or any such reasons. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has written a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all the States/UTs to ensure that Section 7 of Aadhaar Act, 2016 is implemented in its true letter and spirit for all.
[Source : Ministry of Electronics, Press Note dt. 10.02.2018]
