AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5736 - Govt may link food subsidy with Aadhaar Surabhi Agarwal

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, August 2, 2014

5736 - Govt may link food subsidy with Aadhaar Surabhi Agarwal - Business Standard

Govt may link food subsidy with Aadhaar

Surabhi Agarwal | New Delhi July 29, 2014 Last Updated at 00:57 IST

The proposal to link the food subsidy offered by the government with the Aadhaar number is learnt to be back on the table. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's endorsement of Aadhaar and the Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) scheme - both were launched during the previous government's tenure but lost momentum due to an uncertainty around the unique identity (UID) project.

DBT for food subsidy has been a much-debated issue, with many experts arguing against replacing food with cash for the country's poor. Under the current proposal, the government could continue offering foodgrains while linking the Public Distribution System (PDS) with Aadhaar to contain leakages.

In other welfare schemes, such as those for cooking gas, pension and scholarships, which are linked to DBT, cash is transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries.

RECLAIMING AADHAAR?

Feasibility: PMO wants the Planning Commission to give a report on feasibility of implementing direct benefits transfer for cooking gas, pensions, scholarships, NREGS and PDS
Reach: A report on Aadhaar's penetration and digitisation of records is to be given for 300 districts
Timing: An announcement on this is likely during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden Independence Day speech on August 15
Leakages: At present, almost half the subsidy offered by the government for food does not reach the intended beneficiaries
Target: The government has budgeted to give Rs 1,15,000 crore as food subsidy to over 180 million households
Benefits transfer: Before DBT for cooking gas was put in abeyance, around Rs 5,000 crore was already transacted through this channel; the fuel subsidy bill can be lowered by an estimated 20% through this scheme

The Prime Minister's Office has asked the Planning Commission to work on a report on the feasibility of implementing the benefits transfer project in five key schemes - those for cooking gas, pensions, scholarships, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and PDS. According to a government official, details of the extent of digitisation, Aadhaar penetration, etc, have to be provided for almost half the country, or 300 districts. "During his first Independence Day speech, Modi is expected to make an announcement in this regard," the official said.

The project has so far been rolled out only for cooking gas, pensions and scholarships. The government will take a call on how feasible it would be to extend the project to food subsidy, as well as the job guarantee scheme, based on the Planning Commission report.

The subsidy provided by the government for food is believed to be the most wasted. According to estimates, 40-50 per cent of it does not reach the intended beneficiaries. In the current financial year, the government has budgeted to offer Rs 1,15,000 crore as food subsidy to about 180 million households.

An earlier paper on linking Aadhaar and PDS had argued this would ensure delivery of the entitlement to the right beneficiaries and tracking of foodgrain movement.

However, many experts see rollout of an Aadhaar-based scheme for PDS as complex and unnecessary. Himanshu, an assistant professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), says Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu have managed to drastically cut pilferage by employing technologies like SMS-based tracking and the global positioning system. "Currently, Aadhaar penetration is also weak in states like Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where PDS is the most required," he adds.

The government might already be working to address some of the concerns pointed out by Himanshu. Aadhaar's role has been recently expanded to cover four new states, including the most populous ones of UP and Bihar. "This is where the meat is. It will add 300 million population to the UID rolls," said the government official quoted earlier.

Linking ration cards with the unique identity number was also a prompt way to eliminate fakes and duplicates from the system, the official added.

"There are states where the total number of ration cards is greater than population," he said. Several of them have already started using biometrics and the UID number to clean their databases.

The government spends the most on subsidy towards food, jobs and cooking gas. Streamlining these payments could help it contain its subsidy bill and, thereby the fiscal deficit. Before DBT for cooking gas was put in abeyance, around Rs 5,000 crore had already been transacted through this channel. It is also estimated that almost 20 per cent of the fuel subsidy bill can be saved through this scheme.

However, lack of banking access to the country's poor is the biggest roadblock in the success of this project. But the government is understood to be already working on addressing some of these concerns. During his Independence Day speech on August 15, Modi is expected to make an announcement around financial inclusion and mandate two bank accounts per household.

Linking UID with Aadhaar has been in the pipeline for long. In 2010, the government had created a committee to prepare a road map for computerisation of PDS and linking it both to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the UID Authority of India. This had come after a Supreme Court order asking the government to consider computerisation of PDS "in consultation with the specialised agencies."

So far, UID has given out Aadhaar numbers to 650 million residents of the country.

(With inputs from Sanjeeb Mukherjee)