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

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

8640 - Government launches portal for booking LPG connections online - Media Nama

Government launches portal for booking LPG connections online

By Sneha Johari ( @thejunebug ) on August 31, 2015


The Government has launched a portal called Sahaj on MyLPG.in to let citizens book an LPG connection and make payments for the connection online. This service will be available for citizens in Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Patna and Pune for now, and will be launched across the country in the next few days. Note that the portal states that it is maintained by the ‘respective oil marketing companies’. 

Dharmendra Pradhan, state minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas said that the Petroleum Ministry’s initiatives in the last 7 months had extended LPG coverage. According to the PIB release, 2.5 million Indians had given up LPG cylinder subsidy, and that 2.2 million new LPG connections had been issued to BPL (below poverty line) households from January to July this year.

Through the MyLPG portal, which is available on a phone, tablet and computer, users can book their cylinders, register for a new connection, track cylinder booking and delivery dates, choose the distributor, Aadhaar linking status, monitor LPG subsidy transferred to bank and surrender their connection online. It has been created by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas along with oil marketing companies like Indane, Bharat Gas and HP Gas.

A TOI report states that after a new application for an LPG connection is received, the system will automatically detect a dealer best suited for the user and email or message them the customer ID number, within 48 hours of application. Once this number is received, the user can pay online, after which the the system makes a duplication check. Post that, the dealer will deliver the regulator, cylinder and rubber pipe to a new user. Apparently, the whole process will take 6-7 days.

Transparency portals of oil marketing companies became MyLPG
Way back in 2012, state owned oil marketing companies Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum setup LPG transparency portals, offering data on the last mile delivery of domestic LPG cylinders supplied by them to nearly 14 crore households in the country. The portal could be accessed through the official website of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and  through respective oil marketing company websites. These transparency portals were later renamed to MyLPG.

10 crore Aadhaar cards linked to bank accounts
In December last year, the Planning Commission said that 10 crore Aadhaar numbers had been linked to bank accounts of said card holders as a part of the government’s Digital India mission. According to the agency, this would help it identify genuine beneficiaries and send government welfare subsidies directly into their bank accounts. Once Aadhaar linked, it would be used by the government to pay various subsidies like for LPG cylinders, MNREGA workers, PDS, scholarship and remittance.

Bharatgas subsidy list and its privacy concerns
In May, as part of its initiative to encourage LPG users to pay market price and not avail the LPG subsidy provided by the government, Bharatgas put up a list of customers who opted out on a ‘Scroll of Honour’ on its website. However, this move compromised consumer privacy as one could simply select a state and district to get a list of Bharatgas customers who opted out of the subsidy scheme and their addresses.

Our Digital India coverage here.
Image Credit: Flickr user Pranav Prakash
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