AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5817 - Govt plans to re-launch benefits transfer in cooking gas distribution

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

Monday, September 1, 2014

5817 - Govt plans to re-launch benefits transfer in cooking gas distribution - Business Standard

Govt plans to re-launch benefits transfer in cooking gas distribution

BS Reporter | New Delhi August 28, 2014 Last Updated at 00:48 IST

The government proposes to re-launch the direct benefits transfer (DBT) scheme in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution. However, it did not clarify whether the benefit transfer would be linked to Aadhaar or unique identity number. The petroleum ministry also lifted the existing one-cylinder-per-month cap on subsidised LPG sales.

The proposal to restart DBT in LPG was part of an official statement released to announce the launch of the Prime Minister's Jan Dhan Yojana, a financial inclusion scheme, in Delhi on Thursday.

"The plan proposes to channel all government benefits to beneficiaries to such accounts and pushing the DBT scheme of the government, including restarting the DBT in LPG scheme," the release issued by the finance ministry read.

OTHER DECISIONS

Disinvestment: Decision on stake sale in ONGC, Coal India and NHPC put off as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was not in town
Health pact with Japan: Agreement to be signed to cover health financing for universal health coverage, sharing of experiences in public health insurance system and human resource development
Guwahati airport: Construction of three hangars approved, after clearing swapping of land between the airports authority and a children's village of non-government organisation Save Our Souls
Fertiliser: Urea to be manufactured using naptha in three plants for three months; units are Madras Fertilizers Limited, Manali; Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd and Southern Petrochemical Industries Corporation, Tuticorin

Prime Minister Narendra Modi would dedicate mobile banking facility on basic mobile phones to the nation. The first phase of the scheme, to be implemented over the next year, would include universal access to banking facilities, providing bank accounts and debit cards with an inbuilt insurance cover.

Under a previous avatar of the DBT-LPG scheme, the government had transacted over Rs 5,000 crore to beneficiaries using the Aadhaar or unique identity number issued by the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) under the aegis of the Planning Commission. However, the scheme was put in abeyance by the Cabinet due to several ground-level implementation challenges. Concurrently, the Supreme Court had also asked the government not to make Aadhaar mandatory to avail government welfare payments.

There are nearly 160 million LPG connections across India at present. The subsidy extends to 12 cylinders a year. A subsidised cylinder currently costs Rs 414. The oil marketing companies (OMCs) lose Rs 448 on sale of each subsidised cylinder. Overall, under-recoveries on LPG sales stood at Rs 46,458 crore last financial year, roughly 33 per cent of total under-recoveries of Rs 1,39,000 crore reported by the three OMCs on sales of diesel, LPG and kerosene put together.

"The government has decided that while 12 subsidised LPG cylinders per annum will continue to be supplied to all domestic consumers, there will be no separate monthly restriction of one cylinder per month," the petroleum ministry said in a separate official statement on Wednesday.

This modifies the government's February 28 decision and removes the restriction. According to the statement, the decision will eliminate difficulties faced by LPG consumers, as the consumption of LPG cylinders is never one a month.