AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 10153 - Digitisation still a far cry for fair price shops

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

Sunday, July 17, 2016

10153 - Digitisation still a far cry for fair price shops - The Hindu

NEW DELHI, June 17, 2016

Digitisation still a far cry for fair price shops

Teeming beneficiaries:The Capital has 2,534 fair price shops, with nearly 72.8 lakh people using them.File Photo

A pilot project in which 42 shops in the city were installed with ‘point of sale’ machines is being withdrawn

: The Delhi government’s flagship project of digitising Fair Price Shops (FPS) to usher in transparency has failed to take off. Point of Sale (PoS) devices in all FPSs in Delhi were to become operational by this month, but leave installation, the government has not even finished preparing its Request for Proposal (RPF).

‘Showcase city’

As per the plan, Delhi was to be the ‘showcase city’ for the Centre’s project of putting in place a biometric system at all fair price shops in the country. But, despite floating three tenders, the State government failed to rope in any company to carry out the project. This is despite the fact that Delhi is one of the easiest cities to implement the project as it has 100 per cent Aadhaar seeding. The government did not have to spend anything extra in getting the biometrics of ration card holders.

Pilot project

The Capital has 2,534 FPS, with nearly 72.8 lakh people using them. By now, all of them were supposed to distribute essential commodities like wheat, rice and sugar through fingerprint or iris detection of beneficiaries. However, even the pilot project in which 42 such shops were installed with PoS machines is now gradually being withdrawn. According to a senior official, at present, only 37 FPS have functioning PoS devices.

Confirming the report, Amjad Tak, Secretary-cum-Commissioner, Food and Supplies Department, told The Hindu that the office was working on a fresh RFP. “Installing PoS devices in FPSs is the most important project for us; a lot of time has already lapsed. The original proposal had some major flaws, because of which bidders were not forthcoming. We are now working on a new RFP which will be out by next month,” he said.

Owing to repeated delays, the Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi (DDC) came in to “re-visit” the project, and is now co-drafting the proposal. “The new RFP is going to be a robust one with a detailed note on the process of system integration as the company awarded with the project will have to install, operate and even maintain all the devices. A tender (the fourth one) will be floated soon after,” he added.

Criticism from CAG

Even the Comptroller Auditor General (CAG) of India has criticised the failure to implement the project. In its latest audit report of the Delhi government (for the fiscal 2014-15), it observed that PoS machines for verification of the eligible beneficiaries and disbursement of food grains were installed in only 42 out of 2,300 FPSs.

It also highlighted problems in the pilot project. “FSO (Circle 15, North district) intimated that even the PoS machines installed in the FPSs were not working efficiently as these were not user-friendly, had poor battery life and problems of mismatching of fingerprints, and poor network.”

Delhi is one of the easiest cities to implement the project as it has 100 per cent Aadhaar seeding