AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 12010 - Government plans to limit role of private agencies in Aadhaar enrolment

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

Monday, September 11, 2017

12010 - Government plans to limit role of private agencies in Aadhaar enrolment - Economic Times

Government plans to limit role of private agencies in Aadhaar enrolment

BY AMAN SHARMA, ET BUREAU | UPDATED: SEP 08, 2017, 11.58 AM IST

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A big criticism of Aadhaar project has been its dependence on private registrars for enrolment.

NEW DELHI: The government is planning to limit the role of private agencies in Aadhaar enrolment and will focus on setting up permanent centres owned by the government and banks to facilitate registrations and updates as the country nears 100% Aadhaar saturation levels.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has said this in a presentation to banks recently while informing them of the need to become UIDAI registrars for enrolling their customers under Aadhaar, and stressing on its intention of restricting the role of private registrars. The government is banking on 24,000-plus post offices and 12,000 bank branches to offer Aadhaar services to citizens by March next year.

This is also the deadline fixed by the government to achieve 100% Aadhaar target – which is at 87% now. UIDAI has now started enrolling people for Aadhaar in the two states in which it had not been allowed in so far – Assam and Meghalaya. Nearly 117 cr out of 132 cr people in India already have Aadhaar card.

UIDAI is planning Aadhaar enrolment in all nodal schools twice a year – as children at 5 years and 15 years need updates to their Aadhaar biometric details.

“A structure will be required whereby people need to come to update their Aadhaar details for change of address, etc. and for fresh enrolments of new-born children. A government-backed structure is more apt for this…we are not discouraging private operators and government representatives will oversee them but we feel people will veer more towards the former,” a senior government official told ET.

A big criticism of Aadhaar project has been its dependence on private registrars for enrolment.

Also, 110 cr bank accounts need to be linked to Aadhaar by December 31 – nearly 70 cr accounts have already been seeded with Aadhaar but it is suspected that many people may not have an Aadhaar or their details may not be updated in their existing Aadhaar data and may not match with the details in bank records. UIDAI has asked nearly 42 banks to offer these Aadhaar enrolment facilities at nearly 14,000 out of their existing branches. SBI to offer it at 3,149 branches, Punjab National Bank at 939 branches, ICICI Bank at 485, HDFC Bank at 477 and Bank of India at 700 branches.

ET View: Sensible Decision by Government

Tapping into post offices and banks for Aadhaar enrolment makes sense. The government must accelerate enrolment and scale up Aadhaar linked payments to disburse all subsidies, now that the benefits are evident, say, in the direct benefit transfer of cooking fuel subsidy. In tandem, the need is to enact privacy and data protection laws and ensure that a citizen has a right to complain and obtain redressal if her data is misused.