Preparations in full swing to implement UCC in U’khand
By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 17 Aug: Administrative preparations are in full swing to implement the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand in the month of October. It may be recalled that Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has already publicly declared that the UCC will be implemented in the state before the State Formation Day which falls on 9 November. It may also be reminded here that Dhami Government has set up a committee headed by retired Chief Secretary Shatrughan Singh and also comprising Vice Chancellor of Doon University Prof Surekha Dangwal and social activist Manu Gaur besides others to prepare rules for the implementation of the UCC in the state.
The UCC Act has already been passed in Uttarakhand Assembly and after that it has been notified after approval from the President. The Shatrughan Singh Committee constituted to implement the UCC is learnt to have almost completed the work of preparing guidelines for all the departments in the government.
Shatrughan Singh, former Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand, recently met Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami to discuss the draft rules and guidelines and following his approval, guidelines have been issued by the departmental officials regarding UCC. It is learnt that in addition to the implementation of UCC , the government has also decided to prepare an exhaustive database of all the residents of Uttarakhand. This database will be collected through an App to be developed specially for this purpose. All the citizens in the state will have to register the details of their family on this App implementing UCC in Uttarakhand. In this app, all citizens will have to register the details of their family, the education details of self and family members and occupation. Once these details are recorded, the database will supposedly help the state residents to avail many government facilities on an automatic basis through this database based on eligibility criteria for each such facility.
In this, information like number of local citizens in the family, education, occupation, taking advantage of government schemes will be recorded. This app will also serve as a family register in the state. Through this data, many facilities available to the citizens of the state will automatically become online. When UCC is implemented, it will serve as a database which will prove helpful in implementing the law. With this data, people will be able to register their will online, get facilities like marriage registration, birth and death registration etc. on their own.
After the data is registered, it will be easy for Uttarakhand and the Central Government to ensure reach of their schemes to the needy while also saving time. If a person or family from outside area comes to Uttarakhand, then the government administration will get its information immediately. If someone fails to register his information, then the matter will also come to light immediately.
Though, it is learnt that the onus to register their families on their App has been put on the family heads but the fact remains that collection of data regarding UCC will prove to be a huge challenge for the government administration. The state government is mulling on utilising the guidelines of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs in this regard.
Sources claimed that the way, UCC is being discussed across the country and in the wake of the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi also emphasised on the need of UCC during his Independence Day Speech on Thursday, the government seems to be in a hurry to implement the UCC before a common UCC is brought and implemented in the country. The government is sure that UCC is set to be implemented in the whole country in the coming days. Hence the government is moving forward with the help of modern technology in this so that the civic facilities can be expanded. Using an App for collection of data of the residents is also a new initiative. Of course, Uttarakhand is relatively a smaller state with a population of around 1.25 crore where data collection is relatively easier as compared to more populous states. But if this experiment of preparing a database through an app succeeds, then this can be replicated in other states as well and in that case, it will prove to be another feather in the cap of the Dhami Government.
