New Delhi: Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday announced that it will be soon made mandatory for citizens to link their Aadhaar card and driving licence. 

Delivering his presidential address at the ongoing 106th Indian Science Congress at Lovely Professional University, Prasad said, "We are soon going to bring a law which will make it mandatory to link Aadhaar with driving licence."

The law minister announced the proposal within two days of Lok Sabha passing the Aadhaar amendment bill. 

How to link?

1. People can link their Aadhaar and driving licence linked by visiting their state or UT RTO. Once logged into the website, one has to click on the ‘link Aadhaar’ option and enter the driving licence number. 

2. Once the details are on the screen, one has to enter the 12-digit Aadhaar number along with linked mobile number. 

3. A confirmation text will appear on the mobile of the applicant once the process is complete. 

4. People can opt to do this voluntarily before the government rolls out a law making it mandatory. 

Why the linking?

"At presently, what happens is that the guilty person who causes an accident flees the scene and gets a duplicate licence. This helps him go scot-free. However, with the Aadhaar linkage you can change your name but you cannot change your biometrics, neither iris nor fingerprints. So the moment you go in for a duplicate licence, the system will say this person already has a driving licence and should not be given a new one," said Prasad, explaining the need for the linkage.

Eulogising about the Centre's 'Digital India' programme, the minister claimed that it had bridged the urban-rural divide.

Through a power presentation, Prasad said, "This is digital profile of India -- 123 crore Aadhaar cards,121 crore mobile phones, 44.6 crore smart phones, 56 crore internet users, there has been 51 per cent growth in e-commerce. There is 130 crore population in India."

He also said digital payment transactions in the country have increased manifold to over Rs 2,070 crore in 2017-18.

LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal, Punjab BJP President Shwait Malik and Phagwara MLA Som Parkash were also present on the occasion.