AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 3043 - Aadhaar enrolment may take four more months

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, February 15, 2013

3043 - Aadhaar enrolment may take four more months

Aadhaar enrolment may take four more months

B. CHANDRASHEKHAR

Completion of Aadhaar enrolment, opening of bank accounts for all beneficiaries of welfare schemes and seeding of unique identity numbers with the bank accounts in the State is likely to take over six months, notwithstanding the government plans to wind up the work over the next two months.

Official sources told The Hindu that it would take nothing less than four months to complete the exercise in all respects even in the five districts -- Anantapur, Chittoor, East Godavari, Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy -- where the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme was launched. It would take much more time to finish the work in the remaining 18 districts in the State, sources stated.

LPG linkage

Though the February 15 deadline for linking Aadhaar with the supply of subsidised domestic LPG cylinders has been postponed by a month, apprehensions among people, particularly the LPG consumers, are far from addressed. People’s woes in enrolling for Aadhaar and getting the UID cards are continuing unabated, even as the government has promised to set up over 2,000 new enrolment centres in the State, including 300 in Hyderabad.

The Civil Supplies Department authorities, who are monitoring the Aadhaar exercise, stated that out of over 8.5 crore population in the State, 6.52 crore were enrolled for Aadhaar cards and about 5.26 crore of them were allotted UID numbers. However, only about 60 per cent of them have received Aadhaar cards so far due to delay in generation of cards and their despatch through the Postal Department.

A far cry

Linking of UID numbers with the subsidised domestic LPG consumers is a far cry as only about 8.5 lakh out of 52 lakh consumers in the five DBT districts were linked with Aadhaar so far, mostly in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts till last week.

Seeding of UID numbers with bank accounts for cash transfer of subsidies in welfare schemes is, however, completed in respect of only half of the beneficiaries in the DBT districts. Of the 2.27 crore entries for various welfare schemes in these districts, only 2.19 crore have bank accounts and 1.9 crore have Aadhaar enrolment. But, seeding has been done only for 1.53 crore of them till January-end. The banks are planning to ensure total financial inclusion in the DBT districts with the help of banking correspondent agents (BCAs) and common service centres (CSCs) to the uncovered population in 1,182 gram panchayats out of 4,000 in the DBT districts, excluding Hyderabad.

Keywords: UID numbers, Aadhaar