<p>Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to confronting the UPA government. In his latest show of aggression, Modi has nixed Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s ambitious pet project of launching Resident Identity Cards (RICs) in the coastal areas of the state.<br /><br />Modi argued that the methodology adopted for vetting citizens’ status was fraught with danger. The Home Ministry’s plan of handing over the second batch of RICs to adults of the age of 18 years and above in more than 650 villages of the coastal belt of Gujarat has come to a halt.<br /><br />In January, Chidambaram had handed over the identity cards in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, where the issue of profiling did not crop up. <br /><br />The country’ coastal belt spread over nine states and four Union territories were marked first for providing identity cards owing to security concerns raised after the 9/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.<br /> <br />The approved cost of the scheme is Rs 216.31 crore. The state’s general administration department wrote to Directorate of Census Operations in Gandhinagar last month, saying that the distribution of RICs must be put on hold till Chief Minister Modi gets a response on the issues raised regarding giving citizen cards, Registrar General of India (RGI) sources said.<br /><br />Social vetting<br /><br />For verifying the antecedents of villagers, the RGI, which reports to Home Ministry, has opted for ‘social vetting’ done by ‘gramsabhas’. State government officials were designated for collecting the data on residents which were socially vetted before using them to make individual cards. However, the Gujarat government is of the view that the process of social vetting is not a foolproof way of profiling citizenship status of individuals.<br /><br />The Modi government believes that the Centre cannot ignore the state for organizing a function to handover the cards.The spat between the Home Ministry and BJP state government has been happening for the last two years and letters have been exchanged between Chidambaram and Modi articulating their views on strengthening the verification process of identifying individuals. It is learnt that as early as March 2010, Modi in a written communiqué to Chidamabram, had questioned the method used for the verification of citizenship status carried out for the National Population Register (NPR).The chief minister had suggested that state should be involved to cement this process crucial to establishing effective delivery systems for executing policies as well.<br /> <br />Political issue<br /><br />RGI sources said that the minister had replied to the chief minister, explaining that his views were taken on board while seeking broader consultations with other states for tying up the lose ends of the authentication process. Sources said Modi appears to be making a political issue out of this.<br /><br />The National Population Register aims at compiling a comprehensive database of residents in the country with their unique identification numbers which would be provided by another body Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).<br /><br />The RIC is a smart card carrying 64 KB micro processor chip. It incorporates several physical security features like Guilloché patterns, hot stamped hologram and micro text etc.The demographic data collection of 1.2 crore persons and the biometrics of 75 lakh persons in the 3331 coastal villages under the coastal NPR project have been completed, the Home Ministry had earlier stated. <br /></p>
<p>Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to confronting the UPA government. In his latest show of aggression, Modi has nixed Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s ambitious pet project of launching Resident Identity Cards (RICs) in the coastal areas of the state.<br /><br />Modi argued that the methodology adopted for vetting citizens’ status was fraught with danger. The Home Ministry’s plan of handing over the second batch of RICs to adults of the age of 18 years and above in more than 650 villages of the coastal belt of Gujarat has come to a halt.<br /><br />In January, Chidambaram had handed over the identity cards in Andaman & Nicobar Islands, where the issue of profiling did not crop up. <br /><br />The country’ coastal belt spread over nine states and four Union territories were marked first for providing identity cards owing to security concerns raised after the 9/11 terror attacks in Mumbai.<br /> <br />The approved cost of the scheme is Rs 216.31 crore. The state’s general administration department wrote to Directorate of Census Operations in Gandhinagar last month, saying that the distribution of RICs must be put on hold till Chief Minister Modi gets a response on the issues raised regarding giving citizen cards, Registrar General of India (RGI) sources said.<br /><br />Social vetting<br /><br />For verifying the antecedents of villagers, the RGI, which reports to Home Ministry, has opted for ‘social vetting’ done by ‘gramsabhas’. State government officials were designated for collecting the data on residents which were socially vetted before using them to make individual cards. However, the Gujarat government is of the view that the process of social vetting is not a foolproof way of profiling citizenship status of individuals.<br /><br />The Modi government believes that the Centre cannot ignore the state for organizing a function to handover the cards.The spat between the Home Ministry and BJP state government has been happening for the last two years and letters have been exchanged between Chidambaram and Modi articulating their views on strengthening the verification process of identifying individuals. It is learnt that as early as March 2010, Modi in a written communiqué to Chidamabram, had questioned the method used for the verification of citizenship status carried out for the National Population Register (NPR).The chief minister had suggested that state should be involved to cement this process crucial to establishing effective delivery systems for executing policies as well.<br /> <br />Political issue<br /><br />RGI sources said that the minister had replied to the chief minister, explaining that his views were taken on board while seeking broader consultations with other states for tying up the lose ends of the authentication process. Sources said Modi appears to be making a political issue out of this.<br /><br />The National Population Register aims at compiling a comprehensive database of residents in the country with their unique identification numbers which would be provided by another body Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).<br /><br />The RIC is a smart card carrying 64 KB micro processor chip. It incorporates several physical security features like Guilloché patterns, hot stamped hologram and micro text etc.The demographic data collection of 1.2 crore persons and the biometrics of 75 lakh persons in the 3331 coastal villages under the coastal NPR project have been completed, the Home Ministry had earlier stated. <br /></p>