AADHAAR RELATED ARTICLES: 11963 - Aadhaar seeding scam takes root

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, September 3, 2017

11963 - Aadhaar seeding scam takes root - Telegraph India

https://www.telegraphindia.com/1170902/jsp/frontpage/story_170423.jsp#.WaqSCj7GOtB.twitter

Aadhaar seeding scam takes root

A.S.R.P. Mukesh

Ranchi, Sept. 1: An engineering student in Jharkhand, with the help of a banking agent, linked his Aadhaar number with the savings account of a college to embezzle more than Rs 11 lakh in 30 days, exposing a serious threat to the unique ID seeding that the Narendra Modi government at the Centre is so aggressively promoting.

Police, who chanced upon the fraud after United Bank of India (UBI) lodged an FIR yesterday, are hunting for Rohit Kumar Pandit (22), a native of Karma in Koderma and a BTech student of a private college in Ranchi, and Om Prakash Singh, a banking correspondent of UBI's Jhumri Telaiya branch in Koderma, 160km from the state capital.

Although an isolated case reported so far, bankers told this newspaper that wrong Aadhaar cards being seeded with other plum bank accounts could not be ruled out. They added that given the pressure on banks from the government to achieve Aadhaar targets, such frauds could be commonplace.

UBI's Jhumri Telaiya branch manager Abhishek Kumar said the siphoning could have been facilitated by an operational glitch, but a high-level probe had been ordered to find out how the Aadhaar number of an individual was seeded with that of a college account.

"Around Rs 11.33 lakh was withdrawn in instalments from the savings account of JJ College (in Koderma) in the past month. The college lodged a complaint with us after receiving the account statement. From our end, we lodged a named FIR after preliminary probe," Kumar said.

According to the branch manager, banking correspondents/agents are not on the payroll of any bank, but are outsourced through agencies.

A person in a rural or semi-urban area whose Aadhaar number has been linked to his/her account can approach a banking correspondent (instead of a bank) to withdraw a maximum of Rs 10,000 using biometric scans.

"Besides a salary of around Rs 3,000-4,000, the agents get commission on withdrawals, Aadhaar seeding, opening of accounts, loans, etc. Their job is to visit remote areas where banks can't physically go and help people," the manager said.

The Jhumri Telaiya branch has two such banking correspondents, one of them Om Prakash.

Another UBI official said it was, however, not yet clear how Rs 11 lakh was withdrawn within a span of 30 days when the daily limit was Rs 10,000 (through banking correspondents).

Jhumri Telaiya thana in-charge Kameshwar Prasad couldn't give details of the IPC sections under which the FIR had been lodged against Rohit and Om Prakash, but said they had launched a manhunt for the duo.

Prasad Joshi, general manager of State Level Bankers' Committee, an apex outfit of all banks in Jharkhand, said wrong Aadhaar seeding could only happen through "human intervention" and could remain undetected for days.

"The National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), where all the data are stored, only shows the bank account and UID numbers and no names. So, once an Aadhaar number is tagged with an account, it can be difficult to say if it is genuine or fake. It is better to update mobile phone and email details with your bank for timely withdrawal alerts," he said.

Principal of JJ College J.K. Prasad could not be contacted from Ranchi because his phone remained switched off.