Union Law, Justice and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the poor in India are not complaining about mandatory linking of their Aadhaar number with bank accounts, CNBC-TV18 reported. The minister was responding to reports about a child’s death after her family was denied food ration supplies because they did not have an Aadhaar-linked ration card in Jharkhand.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government has framed a law to regulate Aadhaar and introduced a system to implement it, he said while adding that the earlier administration had started the programme with only a notification. “I have asked the Jharkhand government to take action against the officer concerned in the case,” Prasad told the news channel on Monday. “Basic benefits cannot be denied to any person with or without an Aadhaar card.”
Prasad also said that negotiations with multinational technology company Apple for manufacturing mobile handsets in India were ongoing. Union Minister Alphons Kannanthanam had said on October 10 that the government is considering Apple’s proposal to manufacture handsets in India.
“Apple is welcome in India,” Prasad said. “Any investors coming into India is going to be a gain. Apple already has a big footprint, it will be a big gain for them [to invest in India]. The negotiations are on.”
Prasad also claimed that the resignation of Solicitor-General of India Ranjit Kumar was purely for personal reasons. Kumar had resigned on October 20.
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