AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 9933 - Par panel flays lower allocation for flagship schemes

In 2009, I became extremely concerned with the concept of Unique Identity for various reasons. Connected with many like minded highly educated people who were all concerned.

On 18th May 2010, I started this Blog to capture anything and everything I came across on the topic. This blog with its million hits is a testament to my concerns about loss of privacy and fear of the ID being misused and possible Criminal activities it could lead to.

In 2017 the Supreme Court of India gave its verdict after one of the longest hearings on any issue. I did my bit and appealed to the Supreme Court Judges too through an On Line Petition.

In 2019 the Aadhaar Legislation has been revised and passed by the two houses of the Parliament of India making it Legal. I am no Legal Eagle so my Opinion carries no weight except with people opposed to the very concept.

In 2019, this Blog now just captures on a Daily Basis list of Articles Published on anything to do with Aadhaar as obtained from Daily Google Searches and nothing more. Cannot burn the midnight candle any longer.

"In Matters of Conscience, the Law of Majority has no place"- Mahatma Gandhi

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney, Australia.

Aadhaar

The UIDAI has taken two successive governments in India and the entire world for a ride. It identifies nothing. It is not unique. The entire UID data has never been verified and audited. The UID cannot be used for governance, financial databases or anything. It’s use is the biggest threat to national security since independence. – Anupam Saraph 2018

When I opposed Aadhaar in 2010 , I was called a BJP stooge. In 2016 I am still opposing Aadhaar for the same reasons and I am told I am a Congress die hard. No one wants to see why I oppose Aadhaar as it is too difficult. Plus Aadhaar is FREE so why not get one ? Ram Krishnaswamy

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.-Mahatma Gandhi

In matters of conscience, the law of the majority has no place.Mahatma Gandhi

“The invasion of privacy is of no consequence because privacy is not a fundamental right and has no meaning under Article 21. The right to privacy is not a guaranteed under the constitution, because privacy is not a fundamental right.” Article 21 of the Indian constitution refers to the right to life and liberty -Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi

“There is merit in the complaints. You are unwittingly allowing snooping, harassment and commercial exploitation. The information about an individual obtained by the UIDAI while issuing an Aadhaar card shall not be used for any other purpose, save as above, except as may be directed by a court for the purpose of criminal investigation.”-A three judge bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar said in an interim order.

Legal scholar Usha Ramanathan describes UID as an inverse of sunshine laws like the Right to Information. While the RTI makes the state transparent to the citizen, the UID does the inverse: it makes the citizen transparent to the state, she says.

Good idea gone bad
I have written earlier that UID/Aadhaar was a poorly designed, unreliable and expensive solution to the really good idea of providing national identification for over a billion Indians. My petition contends that UID in its current form violates the right to privacy of a citizen, guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. This is because sensitive biometric and demographic information of citizens are with enrolment agencies, registrars and sub-registrars who have no legal liability for any misuse of this data. This petition has opened up the larger discussion on privacy rights for Indians. The current Article 21 interpretation by the Supreme Court was done decades ago, before the advent of internet and today’s technology and all the new privacy challenges that have arisen as a consequence.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP Rajya Sabha

“What is Aadhaar? There is enormous confusion. That Aadhaar will identify people who are entitled for subsidy. No. Aadhaar doesn’t determine who is eligible and who isn’t,” Jairam Ramesh

But Aadhaar has been mythologised during the previous government by its creators into some technology super force that will transform governance in a miraculous manner. I even read an article recently that compared Aadhaar to some revolution and quoted a 1930s historian, Will Durant.Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Rajya Sabha MP

“I know you will say that it is not mandatory. But, it is compulsorily mandatorily voluntary,” Jairam Ramesh, Rajya Saba April 2017.

August 24, 2017: The nine-judge Constitution Bench rules that right to privacy is “intrinsic to life and liberty”and is inherently protected under the various fundamental freedoms enshrined under Part III of the Indian Constitution

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the World; indeed it's the only thing that ever has"

“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” -Edward Snowden

In the Supreme Court, Meenakshi Arora, one of the senior counsel in the case, compared it to living under a general, perpetual, nation-wide criminal warrant.

Had never thought of it that way, but living in the Aadhaar universe is like living in a prison. All of us are treated like criminals with barely any rights or recourse and gatekeepers have absolute power on you and your life.

Announcing the launch of the # BreakAadhaarChainscampaign, culminating with events in multiple cities on 12th Jan. This is the last opportunity to make your voice heard before the Supreme Court hearings start on 17th Jan 2018. In collaboration with @no2uidand@rozi_roti.

UIDAI's security seems to be founded on four time tested pillars of security idiocy

1) Denial

2) Issue fiats and point finger

3) Shoot messenger

4) Bury head in sand.

God Save India

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

9933 - Par panel flays lower allocation for flagship schemes - TNN

Par panel flays lower allocation for flagship schemes

PTI | May 3, 2016, 07.47 PM IST

New Delhi, May 3 () A Parliamentary panel today criticised the government for "gross downsizing" of the gross budgetary support to flagship schemes such as Aadhaar and Digital India programme.

"A scrutiny of allocation made under Plan schemes shows that the approved Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) has been grossly downsized, leaving a yawning gap between the proposed and the approved GBS," Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT said in a report tabled in the Lok Sabha today.

This, indeed, is a matter of grave concern to the Committee, it added.

The Committee, chaired by Anurag Singh Thakur, also endorsed the demand of Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) for allocation of additional funds for the current fiscal.

"The Committee also desire that DeitY need to have adequate budget in the coming Plan years because this Department are implementing some of the schemes/programmes which are central to the building of a technologically empowered society to take a lead in the global digital economy," it said.

For 2016-17, Rs 9,530.90 crore was proposed as GBS, while only Rs 3,200 crore was approved.

On Aadhaar, the Panel said the current budgetary allocation of Rs 800 crore (against a proposed amount of Rs 1,468.23 crore) will not be sufficient to meet the requirement.

"The Committee desire that allocations to UIDAI may suitably be enhanced to meet the requirement so that the projected targets as per BE (Budget Estimates) proposal 2016-17 are not affected," it added.

UIDAI was earlier with NITI Aayog but from September 2015 onwards, it has been shifted under DeitY as an Attached Office.

Also, DeitY had proposed an estimate of Rs 5,778.07 crore for the Digital India Programme. However, a sum of only Rs 1,282 crore has been provided under this programme.

On expenditure for promotion of electronics and IT hardware manufacturing in India, an allocation of Rs 70 crore has been made against the proposed estimate of Rs 854.64 crore. "The Committee, therefore, recommend that adequate allocation of funds is needed under different schemes of this project and it should be the constant endeavour of the Department to engage with the Ministry of Finance for requisite allocation," it said.

The panel emphasised that the government should continue to give incentives in different areas of this ambitious project so that it remains an attractive field for multinationals, encouraging them to have more and more investments, it added. SR MR

(This story has not been edited by timesofindia.com and is auto–generated from a syndicated feed we subscribe to.)