[Reader-list] Parliamentary panel rejects UID Bill

[Sharan Lal]

good.

On 8 December 2011 18:38, Anivar Aravind <anivar at movingrepublic.org> wrote:

> 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
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