AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 3188 - Aadhaar connected all India driving license likely

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

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

3188 - Aadhaar connected all India driving license likely

Aadhaar connected all India driving license likely

Posted by: Prahlad Updated: Saturday, March 30, 2013, 1

New Delhi, March 30: While averting transport strike from next month, Road Transport Minister C P Joshi has promised to make the toll collection process at the national highways hassle free and consider Aadhaar card linked driving license (DL) valid all over India. Currently, every state has its own DL and rules. Joshi's ministry ensured that the truckers body AIMTC deferred the strike which was to begin from April 1.

The ministry has assured to consider their demands in a time-bound manner. This good news comes along with smooth travel on highways, as promised by Joshi. The government will roll out RFID-based electronic toll collection across all the toll plazas on national highways through out the country by 2014. "We intend to have by 2014 entire country through ETC (electronic toll collection). Nandan Nilekani has suggested RFID card and we have introduced two new pilot projects.

By 2014, we will cover entire toll plazas through ETC mode," Joshi said yesterday evening while interacting with the public on muti-video chat, Google Hangout. The ETC systems is based on radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. For this, a RFID chip-embedded sticker will be put on the vehicles and money will get deducted at the toll plazas automatically. This will be pooled electronically at one place and later distributed among the toll companies.

Currently, vehicles have to pay cash at all the toll plazas, leading to massive traffic jams. People from all over the country such as Bangalore , New Delhi, Hyderabad, Gandhinagar, Roorkee , Andhra Pradesh, Gurgaon, Udaipur, Chennai and Bilaspur, Chattisgarh asked Minister to answer questions on various aspects of road safety. They wanted to know about creation of proper data base like Australia, US and Europe to identify the exact cause of accident is the first step towards improving safety, issuance of a centralized prepaid toll card which to help reduce the toll passage time, collection effort, hassle to manage change, commuters fuel and corruption, linking all the vehicles and their drivers on one system so that when driver visits different states the hassle of proving his identity is avoided. Joshi said that government is working with state governments for online registration of vehicles and other related information. On the suggestion of one Driving License in the entire country, he said center will try to integrate the issuance of DL with Aadhaar card. On the matter of issuing license without proper training, he said in the 11th plan centre had started DL schools in different states and the project will be given more focus in 12th plan. Joshi also said that the government has launched a pilot project on Gurgaon-Jaipur stretch of National Highway-8 to provide cashless medical treatment to accident victims during the during the first 48 hours of the accident.

The government has already signed an MoU with ICICI Lombard last week and has created a corpus of Rs 20 crore for the scheme. Meanwhile, the AIMTC has decided to defer the strike which was to begin from April 1. "This (strike) has been deferred till further notice on assurances from the government that all the demands would be considered in a time-bound manner," All India Motor Transport Congress President Bal Malkit Singh said. AIMTC has had detailed discussions with the officials of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, he added. AIMTC, an apex body of transporters (both cargo and passenger) is demanding withdrawal of the hike in third party insurance premium, rollback of partial de-control of diesel prices and removal of anti-dumping duty on import of tyres saying that these issues have adversely impacted road transport sector.