New Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General on Wednesday pulled up UIDAI for the issuance of Aadhaar to children below the age of five years on the basis of the biometrics of their parents without confirming the uniqueness of biometric identity, saying such acts are against the basic tenets of Aadhaar Act.
In its report, CAG advised Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to explore "alternate ways" to capture uniqueness of biometric identity for minor children below five years, since uniqueness of identity is the most distinctive feature of Aadhaar established through an individual's biometrics.
There had been instances of issuance of Aadhaars with the same biometric data to different residents indicating flaws in the de-duplication process and issue of Aadhaars on faulty biometrics and documents, the principal auditor said in its report on the functioning of UIDAI.
The 'de-duplication process' remained vulnerable for generating multiple Aadhaar numbers and manual interventions had to be done to resolve the problem, the report, tabled in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, said.
As per information provided by UIDAI Tech Centre, nearly 4.75 lakh duplicate Aadhaar numbers were cancelled as of November 2019. This indicated that on an average, no less than 145 Aadhaars generated in a day during the period of nine years since 2010, were duplicate numbers requiring cancellation, CAG noted.
According to the report, UIDAI needs to also strengthen the 'Automated Biometric Identification System' so that generation of multiple/duplicate Aadhaars could be curbed at the initial stage itself.
The performance audit by CAG included assessment of the enrolment and update ecosystems as well as the authentication ecosystems of the UIDAI for the period 2014-15 to 2018-19. The figures have been updated wherever received up to March 2021.