AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 7110 - Govt wants all MGNREGS payment modules under e-FMS by 1 April

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

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

7110 - Govt wants all MGNREGS payment modules under e-FMS by 1 April - Live Mint

Govt wants all MGNREGS payment modules under e-FMS by 1 April

Centre notifies e-transfer of wages to accounts linked to an Aadhaar number; plans mobile monitoring system

Moulishree Srivastava

The mobile monitoring system will keep track of all works, workers’ attendance and work site measurement in real time. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

New Delhi: In a bid to streamline the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and plug leakages in the payments process, the government has formally notified that wages under the rural job guarantee programme will be electronically credited to workers’ accounts linked to an Aadhaar number.

The rural development ministry also issued a directive to the states to adopt the electronic fund management system (e-FMS) before April to curtail parking of funds at various levels that result in inefficient fund flow. To keep track of all works, workers’ attendance and work site measurement in real time, the rural ministry plans to roll out a mobile monitoring system for MGNREGS.

E-FMS is a mechanism for transfer of funds from the Centre through an online system to states that provides an uninterrupted access to funds to districts down to Gram Panchayat levels and avoid diversions.

In a 23 December letter, the ministry of rural development said, “MGNREGS has now been formally notified under DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) scheme by the Ministry of Finance covering 300 districts in the country.” Of these 300 districts, 287 are covered under MGNREGS. DBT involves electronic transfer of wages from a single e-FMS account directly into the workers’ account linked to an Aadhaar number. “The link with Aadhaar numbers is expected to sanitize the database of MGNREGS apart from allowing faster and more transparent transfer of wages to workers,” the letter said.

In another letter dated 22 December, the department of rural development said even as 94% of Gram Panchayats under the MGNREGS have moved to e-FMS, “it is found that even in the GPs where e-FMS has been implemented, funds are lying with sub-state accounts on the ground that material and administrative payments are not yet bought under e-FMS.” “As a result, the desired optimization of funds has not been fully materialized,” it added.

The union rural ministry has directed all state rural development departments to proactively bring all payment modules including wages, material and administrative under e-FMS on or before 1 April.

Separately, on Wednesday, the rural ministry said it is likely to introduce the mobile monitoring system for effective implementation of MGNREGS which will be implemented on a pilot basis.

The Centre has recently sanctioned Rs.147 crore to states to strengthen the social audit structures. The overall 6% administrative cost wasn’t adequate so an additional grant was sanctioned. While all processes under MGNREGS programme are linked to NREGASoft, a software which collates related data to provide a real-time data visibility, the mobile monitoring system will provide the mobile interface to NREGASoft and allow an online and real-time updation of database and monitoring of all the processes under the scheme.

It’ll use the existing GSM (global system for mobile) or GPRS (general packet radio service) connectivity and a low-cost portable computing device. Earlier this year, the monitoring scheme was not able to take off even after the first instalment of funds were released to nine states which came forward to implement the scheme, since the Aakash-IV tablet, which was prescribed in the scheme and in the sanction order, was not available in the market, said an internal letter dated October issued by the department of rural development.

The government thus amended the earlier scheme, saying there will be no centralized procurement of the device as the functionaries (people responsible for operating MGNREGS) will be free to buy any device, which satisfies required specifications. The device’s cost or Rs.10,000, whichever is lower, will be reimbursed to the functionary.

Neelashi Mangal and Garima Singh contributed to this story.