Broadening the use of unique identification programme, the Centre will soon make Aadhaar cards necessary for a new driving licence as well as for the renewal of the permit.
The Narendra Modi government will soon ask states to make quoting Aadhaar number necessary for licence, a Times of India report said.
The new rule will come into effect from October this year, the report said, quoting sources.
The decision is being taken to prevent the issuance of multiple licences.
Duplicate licences are often used to beat the suspension of licence for traffic, criminal offences or for fake identity.
The mandatory use of Aadhaar number will prevent the issuance of duplicate license, stopping its misuse.
The issuance of a driving licence is a state subject so the government can only advise the states to adopt certain practices. The Union road transport ministry has already started working the process to roll out the new guidelines and will urge states to adopt this "safe system."
"Aadhaar will be a single document which will be enough to establish the identity of the applicant. If anyone does not have it, then he/she has to submit several other documents. We are making the necessary changes and incorporating provisions to enable RTOs to record these details. All RTOs will have access to the central database of driving licences (known as Sarathi) to check whether the applicant has got any other driving licence issued anywhere in the country," the newspaper quoted a source as saying.
Since most RTOs (Regional Transport Offices) follow manual system to verify identity of applicants, they cannot check if the applicant already has another licence from another RTO.
Official estimates peg number of driving licenses in the country to be around 18 crore.
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