AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 4933 - Oil firms in Kerala steam ahead with direct subsidy transfer

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

Thursday, November 14, 2013

4933 - Oil firms in Kerala steam ahead with direct subsidy transfer - The Hindu

KOCHI, November 8, 2013

Updated: November 8, 2013 14:28 IST

Oil firms in Kerala steam ahead with direct subsidy transfer

M. P. PRAVEEN

Oil companies are steaming ahead with the November 30 deadline for the implementation of the Aadhaar-based DBLT of LPG subsidy in the absence of any specific direction from the Union Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas. File photo

Tries to meet November 30 deadline for Aadhaar-based scheme

The more than 80 lakh domestic LPG consumers in the State will do well to enrol under Aadhaar and get the Aadhaar number seeded with their respective LPG consumer ID and bank account to ensure uninterrupted supply of subsidized cooking gas from next month.

Though the Supreme Court had directed against making Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes, the oil companies are steaming ahead to meet the November 30 deadline for the implementation of the Aadhaar-based Direct Benefit Transfer of LPG subsidy (DBTL) in the absence of any specific direction from the Union Ministry for Petroleum and Natural Gas.

DBTL requires LPG consumers to seed their Aadhaar numbers with their respective LPG consumer ID and bank account, on which they will become Cash Transfer Complaint (CTC) consumers, facilitating direct transfer of subsidy for each cylinder to their bank accounts up to a capped limit of nine cylinders a year.

For this, consumers will have to apply in a prescribed form, or through internet, along with a copy of their Aadhaar card or letter with the gas agency and the bank concerned.

About 50 per cent of the 20-lakh subscribers of BPCL in the State have become CTC while it is about 35 per cent for HPCL, which has the close to 10 lakh subscribers in the State. The data is not available for Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), which has the biggest subscriber base of more than 50 lakh in the State.

A senior official of a major oil company said that not only had they received any direction from the government to go slow on DBTL but instead there was a notification that stated that there was no violation of the Supreme Court order in collecting Aadhaar number for direct transfer of subsidy.

Subsidy is already being routed through bank accounts in the case of consumers who have become CTC. Such consumers are required to pay the non-subsidized rate while the subsidy component gets credited to their bank accounts. But this has not been without its share of problems. There were complaints of gas agencies collecting more than the actual price and variation in the subsidy credited to their accounts.

Oil company officials said that the market price of domestic LPG will keep on varying monthly and consequently the subsidy component as well. A slight variation in the subsidy credited had been attributed to the tax collected by the State government.

Oil companies also ruled out the gas agencies collecting more than the bill amount stating that though issued by gas agency operators, the bills are being set by the oil companies. For instance, the non-subsidized rate of a domestic LPG cylinder of IOC in Ernakulam comes to Rs. 993.50 while the subsidy comes to about Rs. 525.92.

Keywords: cooking gas supply, Aadhar card, DBTL, CTC, LPG supply in Kerala