Question : Denial of Services due to NonAvailability of Aadhaar Number

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

(a) whether essential services at several places at present are being denied to persons having no Aadhaar number;

(b) if so, whether the Government has issued any guidelines to State Governments in this regard; and

(c) if so, the details thereof?

Answer given by the minister

(a), (b) and (c): Section 7 of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 has a provision to have alternate and viable means of identification for delivery of subsidy, benefit or service to even those individuals who have not been assigned any Aadhaar number. All the notifications/circulars, issued by various Ministries/Departments of Government of India, have clearly outlined that lack of Aadhaar by any individual will not prevent delivery of any service, subsidy or benefit.

In order to provide more clarifications on requirement of Aadhaar in respect of specific cases, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Department of Food and Public Distribution (PDS) and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Mission have issued the following circulars:

1. UIDAI circular dated 24.10.17 on “Exception handling in PDS and other welfare schemes”
2. Ministry of Food and Public Distribution letter dated 24.10.17 on “Exception handling in PDS and other welfare schemes”
3. DBT Mission, Cabinet Secretariat circular dated 19.12.2017 on “Exception handling”.

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