AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5719 - EPFO issues 41.7 million UANs for seeding with workers' KYCs

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

Saturday, July 26, 2014

5719 - EPFO issues 41.7 million UANs for seeding with workers' KYCs - Business Standard

EPFO issues 41.7 million UANs for seeding with workers' KYCs

UANs will be operational in Oct as the process of seeding with the KYC documents like Aadhaar will be completed by Sept 15

Press Trust of India | New Delhi July 25, 2014 Last Updated at 18:16 IST

Initiating the process of providing portable Universal Account Numbers to members, retirement fund body EPFO today issued 41.7 million UANs to firms for seeding them with workers' KYCs like Aadhaar and bank account number.

An Employees' Provident Fund Organisation official said however that UANs would be operational in October as the process of seeding with the Know-your-customer (KYC) documents like Aadhaar would be completed by September 15.

UAN will improve the quality of service provided to workers in the organised sector as they would not have to apply for transfer of PF account claims on changing jobs. It will also help workers in the construction sector who often work at different locations with different contractors.

"UAN stands allocated to all 41.7 million members who have made contribution to EPFO in any one of the last 6 months. All these UANs have been disseminated to respective employers through OTCP (Online Transfer Claim) Portal," an EPFO office order for the field staff stated.

It said employers are supposed to log on to OTCP portal to collect the UAN allotted to their employees and disseminate that to the individual workers.

Besides, the employers, who maintain computerised database of workers' relating to KYC like Aadhaar/NPR, PAN card or bank account number, can seed those through the UAN Portal by sending a text file in pre-defined format.

The KYC data will automatically be seeded against the UAN of the members upon receipt of this information.

The EPFO wants that the firms must provide Aadhaar/NPR number of workers wherever available and bank A/c number as part of the KYC detail because it will enable EPFO in future to provide services directly to the beneficiaries without intermediation of the employers.

In case where employers does not maintain database of workers' KYC details, the EPFO has created a facility for individual members to upload the details on UAN portal through a personal log in on the member portal.

The individual subscribers are also expected to upload a scanned copy of the documents relied upon for quoting KYC on the Portal. The KYC furnished by individual members will be automatically captured by UAN database for seeding.

Asking field formations to expedite the work on UAN, the order said: "We have set an ambitious target for seeding of KYC which has to be concluded at the earliest by September 15. It is expected that all of you will rise to the present challenge and ensure that seeding for 100% of four crore members is done much before September 15.