[Reader-list] Parliamentary panel rejects UID Bill

[Anivar Aravind]

Yes It is final.
http://moneylife.in/article/parliamentary-panel-rejects-uid-bill/22083.html

Parliamentary panel rejects UID Bill

December 08, 2011 05:47 PM | Bookmark and Share
Moneylife Digital Team

The Standing Committee on Finance has rejected the UID Bill, which was
aimed to enforce bio-metrics enabled Aadhaar identification system on
all residents of India

In a major set-back to the Manmohan Singh led government, the Planning
Commission and Nandan Nilekani, the former chief of Infosys, the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, headed by Yashwant Sinha
has rejected the National Identification Authority of India Bill (NIA
Bill).

So far, the UIDAI has issued over 5.75 million UID numbers across the
country. The cumulative revised budget estimates of the Aadhaar
project, which was launched in 2009, is Rs1,660 crore for FY11 and
FY12. The UIDAI has already spent more than Rs556 crore on the scheme.

Considering all the overlaps, objections, and the serious differences
within the government on the NIA Bill, the Standing Committee is going
to call for a completely fresh legislation.

The finance ministry, the home ministry and the Planning Commission,
further strengthening the committee's reservations to the big-ticket
scheme, have also opposed the project.

The Parliament witnessed some tense moment while the report was being
submitted. There was a spat between Congress' member of Paliament (MP)
Rashid Alvi and Bhartiya Janata Party's (BJP) SS Ahluwalia. Mr Alvi
accused the BJP MP of leaking a paper regarding the Bill to some
reporters. Both the leaders also disagreed over the term 'residents'
and 'citizens' as an eligibility for the UID or Aadhaar number.

Earlier last month, Home Minister P Chidambaram opinioned that the
biometric census done by the Aadhaar project does not pass security
criteria. The Home Ministry even claimed that UID number can be
generated without any verification of documents, mandatory for it.

In addition, the Registrar General and Census Commissioner also
categorically said that the job of collecting biometrics data should
be left to them.

While the government does not have to go by the committee's
recommendations, given the tense political situation, the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government may not want to take any more
chances, especially after the 10-days deadlock in the Parliament over
foreign direct investment (FDI) in retail.

Earlier Bengaluru-based Col (Retd.) Mathew Thomas of Citizens' Action
Forum and VK Somasekhar, founder-trustee of Grahak Shakti had filed a
potential class action suit against the Unique Identification
Authority of India (UIDAI).

According to the petition, there was urgency in filing the suit as the
defendants (UIDAI, Union Govt, and Deputy Chairman, Planning
Commission) intended to complete major part of the Aadhaar enrolment
before the matter was decided by the Standing Committee on Finance and
presented before the Lok Sabha so as to compel the Parliament to
support the project with retrospective effect as money has already
been spent.

"Every day the UID project continues, several crore of rupees of
taxpayers' money would be lost. Apart from this, the continued
gathering of people's data would be an unacceptable security risk both
to the people and the nation its self. It is respectfully submitted
that while millions are dying of hunger, starvation and deprivation be
it children, women, men or aged persons, spending such huge amounts of
money to benefit and make it possible for many to pocket the money at
the expense of the citizen in the name of Aadhaar even without any
legislative sanction is illegal. Plaintiffs are affected by the
conduct of the defendants and so are many millions of Indians," said
Col (Retd.) Thomas and Mr Somasekhar in the petition.


--
Anivar Aravind