Lawrence Milton & H M AravindLawrence Milton & H M Aravind, TNN | Dec 13, 2011, 03.44AM IST
MYSORE: In mid-April 2010, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) started to map the data in Mysore district for its ambitious Aadhaar project. At the end of 2011, 98% of some 30 lakh population in the district has been enrolled to get their Unique Identification (UID) number.
The project that was formally launched on October 8, 2010, by then chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, has been successful as far as enrolment is concerned. But there are problems in the delivery of Aadhaar, since many who have been put through the exercise have not received their document even after six months have lapsed.
Assistant director (statistics) M B Padmashekar Pande, who is district Aadhaar project coordinator, said they have covered over 98% of the population under the project in the district. The coordinator said the enrolment work was assigned to private firms and the details were sent to the e-governance department and from there to the UIDAI for issuing unique numbers to the residents. As the authority dispatches the unique number directly to the addressee through post, there could be delay in getting it due to technical reasons, he said.
If the softcopy of photocopies sent to the UIDAI contains any virus, it would be sent back for debugging. If the person is not living at the given address, the document will remain with postal department or e-governance department. Scores of people have enrolled twice due to delay and this has also has resulted in the delay because UIDAI does de-duplication process to avoid doubling, Pande explained.
The district administration has opened two centres including one at MysoreOne to cover the remaining population. The district administration had opened 132 centres to achieve the goal. For the record, the project to get a sample for the mammoth task to allot 16-digit Aadhaar to 600 million in India in five years, took baby steps in seven villages in Mysore district, where the pilot project was launched in mid-April. The villagers were asked to establish their identity before they were photographed. The UIDAI got 20,000 samples from cross sections of society each from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. The field trails were conducted to see how the system put in place by the UIDAI was working out at the ground level. Initially, when the project was launched in October 2010, the goal was to cover the entire population by December, 2010.
Within some two months after the project was launched, one lakh applications seeking Aadhaar were received. In neighbouring Chamarajnagar district, where enrollment was started two months ago, 81,333 have been enrolled. The district which has a population of 10,20,962 as per the latest census report, has opened 15 centres, a majority of them located in the urban part for enrollment, a senior official stated.
MANDYA
With the help of the district administration, a total 15 Aadhaar enrolment centres have been established in various parts of Mandya district. Seven centers have been issuing the cards in Mandya city alone and six centres are functional in all six taluk headquarters. One centre has been established in Arakere village of Srirangapatna taluk.
Additional deputy commissioner P C Jayanna said as on December 11, a total of 54,611 people have enrolled themselves for Aadhaar in the district. In Mandya city, a total 34, 654 people registered for it.
However, Mandya district is far behind in achieving the target of covering the population under the scheme by the end of March, 2012. Though the process to issue the document started on October 10, 2011, only 3.02% of people enrolled for Aadhaar. The total population of Manday district is 18,08,680 lakh.
Jayanna said that in the coming days, more centres will be established in the district headquarters and will be extended to all taluk headquarters. Later, stations will be established for each gram panchayat. To reach out to remote villages where transport facility is not available, mobile centres will be launched. "We planned to establish 250 centres in the district. The government has released Rs 3 lakh for advertising the importance of Aadhaar, he said.
Why this Blog ? News articles in the Wide World of Web, quite often disappear with time, when they are relocated as archives with a different url. Archives in this blog serve as a library for those who are interested in doing Research on Aadhaar Related Topics. Articles are published with details of original publication date and the url.
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
