9488 - Opposition, allies question hurry to push Aadhaar bill, call for vetting by House panel - Web India

Opposition, allies question hurry to push Aadhaar bill, call for vetting by House panel

New Delhi | Friday, Mar 11 2016 IST The Opposition and the NDA allies today put up a tough resistance to Aadhaar Card bill, questioning the government's haste to push a legislation in which serious privacy issues are still not addressed and has no safeguards against data theft and abuse. Initiating the debate on Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha Congress member from Hingoli Rajeev Shankarrao Satav said the Bill should be sent to the Standing Committee for scrutiny."I do not know what is the tearing hurry. Why the government cannot wait even for 40 days for the House panel to scrutinise it," Mr Satav said, coming down heavily on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party which had opposed the same Bill when Congress was in power."This bares your duplicity, and political nautanki, nothing else. I would quote Meenakshi Lekhi who said she would be ashamed of owning up such bill. I would quote Rajnath Singh ji, who in an interview to Deccan Herald batted for National Population Register(NPR) and better way to go about disbursing benefits to the citizen than the Aadhaar card which he said was fraught with infirmities," Mr Satav said, asking, "Now where are your concerns. It is the same concerns we are raising now."The Congress member also questioned the need for diluting the punishment for data leakage offences. "In our 2010 bill, the punishment was three years imprisonment and Rs 1 crore fine and you have reduced it to one year imprisonment and Rs 10 lakh fine, why? So that the culprit may get away easily?" "The Constitutional status of Right to Privacy is still being examined by a five judge Bench in the Supreme Court. You are not even taking leaf from Indian Telegraph Act which authorises collection of personal data or phone call recording only in the cases of very serious crimes of national emergency. Where is that in your bill?" Mr Satav asked.More UNI PRA SW/RSA 1539