June 25, 2010 07:46 PM
With concerns related to privacy and security, attendee of a recent seminar thought, they would get to hear from a lone representative of UIDAI. But, in the middle of the seminar, the UIDAI representative just vanished from the seminar, leaving behind unanswered questions.
Following the concerns raised by experts, Bengaluru-based Ecumenical Christian Center (ECC) organised a seminar on the unique identification (UID) programme of the union government. However, to the surprise of everyone, including the organizers, a lone representative of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) vanished in the middle of the seminar. This has raised questions about the seriousness on part of the UIDAI to discuss issues related with the ambitious UID project.
There were about 75-80 experts including some from IT companies like Wipro and Infosys present for the seminar. Sunil Abraham, executive director, Centre for Internet and Society and Mathew Thomas of Citizens Action Forum, addressed it.
According to Dr M Mani Chacko, director, ECC, the Center organised the seminar in a hope to create more awareness about the UID project. "We need more information related with the project which involves privacy and security concerns. We wanted either Mr (Nandan) Nilekani or someone from his core team to address us in the seminar. But they sent an intern, who did not speak a single word and was rather observing the proceedings, Dr Mani Chacko said.
The audience was apprehensive about the UID project, especially in light of cancellation or rejection of similar projects across the world. The UIDAI should come forward and should provide all information, answer all concerns of people, the audience felt. However, by sending an intern, who was nowhere to be seen after a sometime, the authority is not presenting an impressive picture, some of the attendees said.
"I also wanted to ask some question to the UIDAI representative, but when I turned back, I could not find him there in the audience," said Dr Mani Chacko.