AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 2011 - NPR says it will do the job faster than UIDAI, sets target of Dec 2012

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

Friday, November 25, 2011

2011 - NPR says it will do the job faster than UIDAI, sets target of Dec 2012 - Business Standard

Sreelatha Menon
New Delhi November 25, 2011, 0:42 IST

The National Population Register under the Registrar General of India which is competing with the Unique Identification Number Authority of India for getting the right for full enrolment of the population for issuing Unique Identification Number has set a target of completing the task by December 2012, five years earlier than when UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani has promised to complete the task.

NPR has given this deadline in the official schedule that it has prepared for the task it has to do. The task is less for NPR in comparison with what UIDAI has in hand. For NPR has already collected basic data on all citizens in the first round it did along with the census this year.

What remains to be done are the biometric and iris scan of all citizens. It has covered 75 lakh citizens so far with a mere 2,500 instruments. It would need another 20,000 equipment to cover the entire population.

While the work of demographic data digitisation and capture of biometric data for 13 coastal states/union territories , Manipur, Nagaland and Delhi has been entrusted to a consortium of Public Sector Undertakings or CPSUs, comprising Bharat Electronics Ltd, Electronics Corporation of India Ltd and ITI Ltd, the rest of the country is being covered by the Department of Information Technology.

DIT would do manual data entry, biometric enrolment, consolidation of both data and deliver it to the Registrar General of India for further de-duplication and assignment of UID number.

DIT has nominated National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology or NIELIT (formerly DOEACC Society) as its nodal implementing agency for executing the NPR project.

Work for biometric enrolment would start in February and conclude in December 2012, NPR sources said.

NPR enrolment is on in 44 districts currently, officials said. The Cabinet Committee on UIDAI is expected to decide the future course of action on the enrolment of citizens.

The Planning Commission Deputy Chairman had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that he could consider four options, viz a model of multiple registrars who don’t get paid by anyone, change in rules of NPR to allow it to accept data collected by outside agencies, to stop NPR from taking biometric data, and lastly, to let NPR do the entire enrolment after UID completes its allotted share of 20 crore enrolments.

The first according to NPR sources wont work as no registrar a bank or a gas agency would be interested in enrolling people if there was no incentive in it. Which bank would go inside villages to enroll people if they are not its customers, asks an official.

States wont get anyone to volunteer to do enrolments if there is no money in it, they point out. The proposal is currently with the Prime Minister and the Cabinet committee on UIDAI is expected to take a decision on who should ultimately do the job.