After linking permanent account numbers and mobile numbers to Aadhar, the Union government is now planning to link individual biometric identity with driving licences. Although no deadline has been finalised, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has discussed the matter with Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. The minister said the reason was to curb malpractices during the issuance of driving licences. After the linking, Prasad said, the system would identify if a person tries to get another driving licence using a fake identity.Speaking at Haryana Digital Summit, Prasad said, “We are planning to link driving licence with Aadhaar. I have had a word with Gadkari regarding this.”
This news comes at a time when the Government has made it mandatory to link mobile numbers with Aadhaar, where the last date to do so has been set to December 2017. However, the Supreme Court is yet to give its verdict on whether Aadhaar violates privacy after the apex court declared it as a fundamental right.
Just last year, the government had announced a facility for citizens called DigiLocker, where people could access their driving licences and vehicle registration certificates anytime and anywhere, eliminating the need to carry them in person. Considered as authentic by various law enforcement agencies, the digital driving licence and vehicle registration documents can be accessed through the DigiLocker mobile application.
A digitization wave has hit the country since last year when the Government announced its demonetization scheme, where currency notes of higher denominations were suddenly declared as invalid. Citizens had to then inconvenience themselves in mile-long queues in order to withdraw hard cash, which popped out of the machine in the form a new 2,000 rupee note, which if you had to spend, finding change was the biggest challenge for most.