Citizens in Telangana who want to register their vehicle with the Road Transport Authority, will now need an Aadhaar card, with effect from August 22.

Confirming this, joint transport commissioner T Raghunath told the Times of India, “Applicants cannot book slots online on the transport department website for any service offered by RTA in the state without providing their Aadhaar number."

Joint transport commissioner (Hyderabad) Panduranga Rao told TOI, "It has also been made mandatory to provide the mobile phone number of the vehicle owner to prevent people from giving wrong numbers. A one-time password is sent on the mobile phone, which the applicant has to type in to book his or her slot."

This rule applies even to second hand, third hand vehicles, with authorities saying that this would help them keep track of each vehicle in the state, and monitor them more effectively.

This comes less than one month after Telangana Minister for Transport P Mahendar Reddy issued orders to begin linking Aadhaar cards with the vehicles.    

"There are about 95 lakh vehicles in the state. There are large number of transfers of vehicles. Make Aadhaar compulsory for vehicle registration and transfers," the release quoted the minister as saying.

The Central government has already made Aadhaar mandatory for several things.

The government has already made Aadhaar mandatory for filing Income Tax returns and provided for linking of PAN with Aadhaar to curb tax evasion through use of multiple PAN cards. Aadhaar is also linked with bank accounts for welfare schemes or otherwise.

The government is also pushing for making Aadhaar mandatory for securing a driving licence and vehicle registration to check bogus licences and create national database, and marriage certifications.