India Post Payments Bank offers option to de-link Aadhaar

The rush over to push Aadhaar linking of individuals to banks, post office and mobile service providers by the government has slowed down in the past one month.

It began with telecom companies when the Centre directed telecom companies to start accepting alternative documents such as driving licence, passport and voter ID card last month.

Now, the shocker comes from the government-owned India Post Payments Bank (IPPB), which is allowing its account holders to de-link Aadhaar number. The Payments Bank also allows customers to open savings bank account without Aadhaar.

However, there is some issue in the form of India Post Payments Bank. Despite the option of de-linking Aadhaar, the declaration part in the form still seeks consent from account holders to allow seeding their account with their Aadhaar, and map this with the National Payments Corp of India (NPCI) to enable direct benefit transfer (DBT) from the government. The anomaly in the form needs to be addressed by the Department of Posts (DoP).

The softening of stand comes after the Centre made it mandatory to link Aadhaar with various post office schemes like PPF, NSC, KVP last year.

In the past, the UIDAI has taken every measure to link 12-digit unique identity number to every bank account, mobile number as well as government schemes like PDS (public distribution system), mid-day meal and others.

In the frenzy of Aadhaar linkage, even private institutions like private banks and mobile service providers seem to leave no-stone-unturned to make it happen.

As the UIDAI is pushing for its case, the matter is in the Supreme Court whether Aadhaar should become compulsory for every citizen in the country.

In the past, the Supreme Court had ruled that citizens do not have to link their the unique identity numbers to bank accounts, mobile phones and passport until the judgment was pronounced on the constitutionality of the unique identification programme.

The development was first reported by Moneylife.