The government has passed the much-awaited Aadhaar Bill in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday without taking the amendments made by Rajya Sabha.
The Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other subsidies, benefits and services) Bill 2016 was passed by a voice vote. The opposition parties staged walk out after government rejected Rajya Sabha’s recommendations.
The Aadhar bill which government considered as the Money Bill is an important tool for ensuring its Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) schemes by better targeting of beneficiaries. The opposition parties objected that government was not following Supreme Court’s direction in which the apex court clearly said that “Aadhar card cannot be made mandatory but should only be voluntary”. However, with the passing of this Bill, people has to have their Aadhar card or unique identity number to claim the benefits.
Rejecting objections from opposition, finance minister Arun Jaitley said, “Parliament cannot abdicate its duty under the Constitutional which clearly separates powers among various institutions.” He added saying that Aadhaar Bill will help government to allocate subsidy to the people under various government schemes.
(Input from CNN-IBN)
Tags: Aadhaar Bill Aadhaar Bill 2016 Aadhar Arun Jaitley india Lok Sabha Money Bill Rajya Sabha
