Aadhaar Streamrolls: After Income Tax, PAN, Mobile, Now Driving Licenses Too Need Aadhaar Card!

 

One of the biggest challenges which RTOs all over India faces is the issue of duplicate driving licenses. Serial traffic rules offenders often get away from punishment by showing multiple driving licenses, as, strangely, there exists a mechanism to stop this menace.

In order to create a uniform repository of all driving licenses, Govt. of India has made Aadhaar Card mandatory for getting a new driving license, as well as for renewing an existing one. Hence, if you still don’t have an Aadhaar Card, then you may not be able to get a new mobile phone, start a business or drive a vehicle.

Now, the issue of driving licenses is a state matter, hence, Centre has requested all States to comply with this new rule pertaining to Aadhaar based verifications.

An unnamed source from transportation ministry said, “Aadhaar will be a single document which will be enough to establish the identity of the applicant… All RTOs will have access to the central database of driving licences (known as Sarathi) to check whether the applicant has got any other driving licence issued anywhere in the country,..”

A single biometric scan of the person with an Aadhaar number will help the RTO and Traffic police to determine whether another driving license had been issued for that person or not.

This is one of the biggest exercises to be executed under Digital India and Aadhaar Mission, as there are close to 18 crore driving licenses issued till date, and it will need a substantial investment to link every one of them (and new ones) with the Aadhaar database.

The Age Of Aadhaar – 7 Areas Where Aadhaar Is Now Mandatory

In the last few days, there have been a number of developments related Aadhaar usage and execution, pan-India. Here is a summary of these:

• Karnataka Govt. has used Aadhaar to successfully transfer more than Rs 650 crore worth of subsidy to over 10 lakh farmers. This massive distribution was part of the parihara scheme launched by Karnataka CM, which is direct benefit transfer scheme for poor farmers.
• Maharashtra Govt. has made Aadhaar as a mandatory requirement for availing crop insurance schemes in the state. A notification from state Agriculture Department said, “From the next Kharif season starting in June, farmers will have to produce their Aadhaar number to avail crop insurance schemes,”
• Apex body for child rights, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), along with NGO Save The Children will make sure that 50,000 street children across Delhi-NCR get their Aadhaar Cards.
• Govt. of India is making plans to provide Aadhaar Card to every orphan staying at more than 9000 orphanages situated across India. An official said, “We have decided that all children — either in adoption agencies or at juvenile homes — must be given an identity, and that identity is the Aadhaar card..” However, since small children’s fingerprints are not fully developed, and they keep on changing till they are 18 years, Govt. will issue them Aadhaar number without biometric data.
• Aditya Nath Yogi, the new CM of Uttar Pradesh, has decided to link Haj subsidy with Aadhaar cards. Minister of state for Haj Mohsin Raza, said, “The government wants to bring in greater transparency. It aims to send more and more economically weaker people on Haj,”
• In 2015, Haryana Govt. had made Aadhaar mandatory for birth, death certificates
• In 2016, matrimonial websites had made Aadhaar as a mandatory requirement for registration.

Here is a long list of Govt. schemes and plans which need Aadhaar as a mandatory proof of identification.

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