No differences on Aadhaar: Chidambaram

CHENNAI, INDIA: Union Home Minister P.Chidambaram on Monday sought to refute the existence of any differences between his ministry and the Unique Identification Authority of India on the issue of Aadhaar and smart card's issued by his ministry.

"There is no clash between Aadhaar and the smart card issued by the home ministry," he said at a function held to distribute the Resident Identity Card (biometric smart card) in Pattipulam village near here.

Pattipulam is the first coastal village in the country to have received these smart cards under the scheme of National Population Register.

Speaking on the occassion, Chidambaram said these cards will help determine who is a resident, who is a citizen and who is a foreigner.

The scheme, costing Rs. 216.31 crores, envisages collection of data from individuals in coastal areas and issue of smart cards to all residents above 18 years of age.

In all, 3,331 coastal villages are covered in the first phase in nine maritime states and four Union Territories.

Demographic data collection of 1.2 crore people and biometrics of 75 lakh people has been completed.

In Tamil Nadu, 11.77 lakh people in 229 villages in 12 coastal districts have been covered under the project. The smart card having a 64 KB microchip embedded incorporates several security features.