According to a report in Sunday Guardian of 18 September, 2011, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and P. Chidambaram have recommended cut in the budget of Unique Identification Authority of India because of “unnecessary spending” by it. Operating under the Planning Commission, UIDAI has filed an affidavit in Supreme Court in PUCL vs Union of India & others saying any citizen spending more than Rs 965 a month in urban India (about Rs.32 a day) and Rs 781 in rural India (about Rs.26 a day) “at June 2011 price level” would be considered not to be poor.
The Home Ministry has questioned the legality of UIDAI. "Until the NIAI Bill 2010 is passed by parliament, the UIDA does not become an authority, and should not be allowed to function so independently". The Home Minister is a member of the Cabinet Committee on UID Authority and he was also a member of the Empowered Group of Ministers to decide the initiatives of NPR and UID. Even without the passage of legislation parliament, UIDA has issued 1 crore UID/Aadhaar Numbers and plans to issue 60 crore by 2014.
This project has been implemented in Pakistan. In India, NATGRID chief executive officer, Capt Raghu Raman, has proposed intervention of commercial czars and creation of private territorial armies in a document titled "A Nation of Numb People".
Pertinently, we already have at least 15 identity proofs including Voter I-card. What creates a compelling logic for the 16th identity proof? Providing bio-metric data like finger prints of ten fingers, iris scan etc to public and private institutions is akin to wearing a radio collar. This is an act of subjecting oneself to constant surveillance which in itself is dehumanizing.
Similar identification schemes have been rejected by China, UK, Phillipines, Australia and USA. According to the World Bank, it is unfolding in 14 developing countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Uganda.
The National Identification Authority of India Bill, 2010 for UID/Aadhaar Number is pending with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance. The Bill does not define bio-metric data implying that it could include DNA profiling and voice identification. Bio-metric identification based UID/Aadhaar Number is essentially a surveillance project. An assault on human rights, it is being pushed through at the behest of US bio-metric technology companies working with intelligence agencies. This will neutralize political resistance in India and ensure profiling of minorities.
The entire UID/Aadhaar Number data will be stored in Central Identities Data Repository to be handed over to US based security, intelligence and bio-metric technology companies like Accenture Services Pvt Ltd and L1 Identities Solution Pvt Ltd as per a contract awarded to them on July 30, 2010. Wikileaks' latest disclosure reveals former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, had transferred identity database of Egyptians to US Federal Bureau of Investigation. Is it not relevant to this so called e-governance initiative of the UPA Government?.
In a significant development, the Indo-Global Social Service Society has disassociated itself from UID Number project being undertaken under Mission Convergence. Withdrawal of IGSSS that works in 21 states of the country merits attention of all the states and civil society organizations especially those unwittingly involved in the UID Number enrollment process. In its letter, IGSSS said, “We will not be able to continue to do UID enrollment, as we discussed in the meeting of 10th May 2011.”
A Statement of Concern calling for halting of UID Number project was issued in September 2010 by 17 eminent citizens, including Justice V R Krishna Iyer, Prof. Romila Thapar, Late K.G.Kannabiran, Prof. Upendra Baxi, Bezwada Wilson, Late S.R.Sankaran, Prof. Trilochan Sastry, Prof. Jagdeep Chhokar, Justice A.P.Shah at a press conference in New Delhi. The New Delhi's Citizens Declaration and Hyderabad Declaration have also called for boycott of UID scheme.
I can share more reference documents to enable fellow citizens to adopt a resolution or issue an appeal for UID/Aadhaar Number boycott.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Gopal Krishna
Quelle/Source: Kashmir Observer, 01.10.2011
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