CPM asks govt to halt biometric enrolment without legal sanction

NEW DELHI: The CPM on Sunday asked the Manmohan Singh government to halt the biometric enrolment saying to embark upon it "bypassing" Parliament and legal sanction was unacceptable.

The party said several issues like legal safeguards against misuse and delinking of social welfare schemes needed to be addressed.

"The Citzenship Act 1955 and the Citzenship Rules 2003 provide for mandatory registration of all citizens, but not biometric enrolment. There are several issues which need to be resolved before such an exercise can be undertaken, especially the legal safeguards against misuse and the delinking of social welfare schemes from this exercise, such as access to PDS and MNREGA," a statement issued by the CPM polit bureau said.

The office of the Director of Citizen Registration/Director of Census Operations, Delhi, has initiated a biometric enrolment of all citizens for the database of the National Population Register, the party said, adding that this makes it mandatory for all citizens to provide biometrics as part of the enrolment, which include ten fingerprints and iris scan.

"These issues are expected to be discussed and resolved once the National Identification Authority of India Bill is finalized by the Parliamentary Standing Committee where it is presently pending. To embark upon the biometric enrolment bypassing parliamentary and legal sanction is entirely unacceptable… The CPI(M) calls upon the Government of India to stop this biometric enrolment immediately," the statement said.

The government's Unique Identification ( UID) number programme will carry 13 biometric information features, include eight fingers, thumbs, eyes and face, apart from demographic details on the card.