Modi govt sold citizens’ driver licence data to 87 pvt companies for ₹65 cr

The central government is selling in bulk vehicle registration and driving licence data of the citizens to various private and government companies and any organization seeking bulk data can obtain the same for Rs. 3 crore in the current financial year.

The Centralized National Registry for transport, maintained by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways through National Informatics Centre (NIC), comprises around 25 crore vehicle registration records and approximately 15 crore driving licence records.

“The Ministry has provided for ‘Bulk Data Sharing Policy and Procedure’ for sharing certain fields in bulk data of vehicle registration. The organization seeking bulk data can obtain the data with an amount of Rs. 3crore for the FY 2019-20,” Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has told the Rajya Sabha in reply to a question by Congress MP Hussain Dalwai.

The revenue collected by the government by providing access to Vahan and Sarathi database is Rs. 65 crore till date, the Minister said in the reply.

Dalwai had demanded to know if the government intended to sell Vahan and Sarathi database in bulk, and if yes, the estimated revenue for such a sale. He also asked if the government has linked Vahan and Sarathi with stolen vehicles data from National Crime Record Bureau.

Educational institutions can obtain the bulk data one time for research purposes and for internal use for Rs. 5 lakh only for the FY 2019-20.

Gadkari said that the government has linked Vahan and Sarathi with stolen vehicles data from National Crime Record Bureau.