After being on the backburner for sometime now, the issue of Makkal (people's) identity has again come to the fore. The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) has been on an overdrive to explain the benefits of the new identity to the public.

Calling it as a product of the DMK government's vision for a 'data-centric governance' in the state, the state IT Minister Mano Thangaraj said that Makkal ID would help the government to get a variety of databases built on different tech stacks or software to 'talk to each other.'

He said that it would give the government an idea of how many people belong to which category or multiple categories, say people with physical disability and also below the poverty line.

The present Aadhar data and Public Distribution System (PDS) data (which has details of all families of the state) is not sufficient for the purpose.

Further, he added that the system would now be able to identify eligible beneficiaries and in case someone is eligible for some benefits but is not availing them, the government will be able to enroll the person.

Targeting the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state, which has called the Makkal ID as duplication of Aadhar, Thangaraj said that only those who do not understand will talk like that.

The Makkal ID would not be similar to Aadhaar as there would be no physical card and no survey or data collection would be carried out for this purpose.

The state BJP's stand has been that the Aadhar number itself can be used to make multiple databases talk to each other. A new parallel identification system is not needed for that and is a waste of taxpayer's money.

Also Read: 'Makkal ID Is Duplication Of Aadhaar,' Says Tamil Nadu BJP