AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 8036 - State to create Aadhaar-based database of all slum rehab beneficiaries

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, May 25, 2015

8036 - State to create Aadhaar-based database of all slum rehab beneficiaries - Indian Express

State to create Aadhaar-based database of all slum rehab beneficiaries

Move aimed at ensuring no beneficiary can avail of free or concessional housing more than once.

Written by Manasi Phadke | Mumbai | Published on:May 24, 2015 1:04 am

The state government has directed the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) to create an Aadhaar card-based database of all slum-dwellers who have been rehabilitated in new houses, and ensure the information is readily available on the authority’s website for anyone to access.

The intention behind the move is to keep a tab on every beneficiary of slum rehabilitation schemes and ensure that the benefit is redeemed only once and prevent enrolment of the same person or family members in other concessional or free housing schemes run by the state.

A state housing department official, who did not wish to be named, said, “As of now, there is no fool-proof mechanism to detect if a person who has got a new house under the slum rehabilitation scheme is himself or through any of his immediate family members vying for another house under the SRA. There have been such cases in the past and we have been able to act only on the basis of those complaints so far.”

RELATED

The state government has asked the SRA to share the database with agencies such as Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, City and Industrial Development Corporation, Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.

“This will ensure that a slum dweller having benefited under SRA will be immediately declared ineligible for any other housing scheme of the government,” the official said. He, however, added that slum dwellers without an Aadhaar card will not be denied housing, but will be asked to register for the unique identification number.

The state housing department issued directions to maintain such a database as part of its set of fresh instructions to determine the eligibility of slum-dwellers for rehabilitation as per the new cut-off date. The erstwhile Congress-NCP government had, prior to elections, raised the cut-off date for eligibility for slum rehabilitation to January 1, 2000, from the previous January 1, 1995, which is likely to bring about 3 lakh slum dwellers more in Mumbai itself under the ambit of free housing.

The former government also introduced a transfer policy, which means anyone who has purchased a pre-2000 slum structure at any point of time by paying a transfer fee to the government will be protected based on sufficient proof of having lived in the slum tenement.

Under the original SRA policy, not only did the slum structure have to be in existence prior to the cut-off year of 1995, the occupier too, was required to have stayed in it before the cut-off year.

Simpreet Singh, an activist with the Ghar Banao Ghar Bachao Andolan, said, “With the transfer policy, there is certainly a need to have stringent checks to ensure that people don’t fraudulently benefit under the slum rehabilitation scheme. However, linking the beneficiary’s Aadhaar card will be a flawed system of going about it. The court has issued clear directions that Aadhaar card is not mandatory for any person to avail of any government scheme.”

manasi.phadke@expressindia.com