AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 5881 - Government deregulates diesel; prices to be linked to market

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, October 20, 2014

5881 - Government deregulates diesel; prices to be linked to market - Economic Times

Government deregulates diesel; prices to be linked to market

ET Bureau Oct 19, 2014, 04.49AM IST

NEW DELHI: The government announced its biggest reform yet as it decontrolled diesel, which will immediately become cheaper by Rs 3.35 a litre, raised gas prices to $5.61 a unit from next month and said cooking gas customers in 54 districts will get subsidy in their bank accounts from next month even if they do not have an Aadhaar card.

The gas price is based on a new formula that excludes costly LNG prices from the calculation, making the increase 75% lower than the price from the Rangarajan formula, which would have doubled the rate to $8.4 per unit. The UPA regime had cleared the Rangarajan price but the Election Commission had blocked it. The government also announced a premium, to be calculated later, on the price of gas from future discoveries in challenging areas like deep-water, and highpressure or high-temperature zones.

Oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Reliance Industries will still get the current rate of $4.2 per unit from its producing fields in the KG-D6 block because the company is in arbitration with the government. "Customers of KG-D6 gas will have to pay the new price. But the operator will get the old price for their gas, which is $4.2 per unit. The difference will be kept in a gas pool account operated by Gail India until arbitration is over," Pradhan said.

The long-awaited reform in diesel prices, which will make the fuel cheaper for the first time in five years, along with renewed efforts to target cooking gas subsidy, will help control the subsidy burden, help finance minister Arun Jaitley control the fiscal deficit and catalyse the fuel retailing sector, where Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Shell India will challenge the near-monopoly of state-run firms in the sector.

The price of natural gas, currently $4.2 a unit, has been increased by a much smaller extent than the UPA government's unimplemented decision to double it to $8.4 per unit. Prices will be revised once in six months. The new price is in the range of what the power ministry had sought but below what the exploration industry deems attractive to spend big money in the hunt for new fields.

Essar Oil welcomed the deregulation of diesel. LK Gupta, MD & CEO, Essar Oil, said: " We welcome the government's decision to deregulate diesel. This will not only help in controlling the fiscal deficit, but also be advantageous for consumers as they will now pay market rates for the fuel which is lower by more than Rs 3 per litre . This will also leave more money with upstream companies for investment in exploration & production, thereby enhancing our efforts for energy security for the country." The hike in natural gas price will raise compressed natural gas (CNG) used in automobiles by Rs 4.25 per unit in Delhi and piped natural gas (PNG) by Rs 2.6 per unit.