The official website detailing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to electrify all rural areas across states published the Aadhaar details of several residents last month, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The leaked data included the names of villages, identity details of residents, and their photographs. However, access to the data was blocked later.
The chairperson of Rural Electrification Corporation, PV Ramesh, told Bloomberg that the organisation had ordered the data to be taken down as soon as it was identified during a “routine verification”.
The data was collected as part of information to authenticate a village’s electrification, he added. Ramesh said the information was gathered and uploaded by local distribution companies.
In April, the Andhra Pradesh Benefit Disbursement Portal uploaded the Aadhaar data of 89 lakh workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The portal is maintained by APOnline – a joint venture between Tata Consultancy Services and the state government.
Another government department in Andhra Pradesh had also published online the Aadhaar data of over 1.34 lakh citizens along with information about their caste and religion.
Earlier in May, Unique Identification Authority of India Chairperson J Satyanarayana told the Andhra Pradesh government to take down Aadhaar data from its official websites.
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