The Jana Aragalaya Movement, affiliated with the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), has accused successive Sri Lankan governments of preparing to hand over fingerprint and iris biometric data of citizens to a foreign company that has been blacklisted in a fraud case.
Speaking at a media briefing in front of the Ministry of Fisheries on Thursday, Jana Aragalaya Movement National Operational Committee member Wasantha Mudalige said decision-making authority over the proposed national biometric identity card system was being ceded to India.
He said the electronic identity card project, launched in 2012, had already cost Rs. 5.6 billion in software development, with a further Rs. 600 million required to complete it. Despite that investment, he alleged, the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration moved in 2021 to integrate the project with India for biometric implementation. A subsequent tender process stalled after bidders failed to meet the required qualifications.
In 2023, Mudalige said, the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration attempted to award the project to Madras Security Printers — a company blacklisted in connection with an excise-related fraud case — but the move was halted following public opposition.
After President Anura Kumara Dissanayake assumed office, Sri Lanka signed an agreement with India in January 2025 under which tendering authority was also transferred, Mudalige alleged. Five Indian companies were initially registered as bidders, but a sixth — Madras Security Printers — was added by March 2026, raising fresh concerns. He warned that the country risked undermining its sovereignty and national security and being reduced to what he called a “puppet state.”
The government has not publicly responded to the allegations. The dispute follows recent accountability flashpoints over state data handling, including the Treasury cyber-fraud cybercrime court case that has drawn in officials from the External Resources Department and the Public Debt Management Office.
Sources: The Island, Ada Derana.
