Monday 21 November 2011

Numerous Numbers, One Citizen

This post was initiated due to my fathers persistent phone calls to enroll the whole of the family in UID.  He has been behind me for the last 3 weeks, even told my daughter that her father was not responsible & he should immediately apply for UID.


Well when he mentioned UID, the 1st thing i did was download the form. A single sheet with very simple inputs, Part C mentions that i could link my existing bank account 'and i have no objection to the issue' - Now this made me think, are these forms of developed by people who wants to create a Central Repository with biometric, et al. This looks like a local finance company trying to woo depositors with high interest rate & sure of closing down when the time comes.


The total spending of UID till Sep'11 as per their declaration is 468.91 Cr. against their budget allocation of 1470 Cr.  All these financial details are from http://uidai.gov.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=147&Itemid=155,

UID, if I remember right, was started in the lines of Social Security No. in USA, our ' IT leaders' saw this as a great opportunity to ensure our citizens are all listed & Social cover provided with no leakages, directly linking bank accounts of beneficiary.


NREGA for the last few years have expended close to more than 1 lac Cr. but less than 2 lac Cr., Other welfare schemes of UPA would have been worth another 1 lac Cr., (conservative estimate). 


As a citizen of this 'Growing' Bharat, I have 'PAN Card'-IT dept, A Bank Account No., Voters ID-'Election Commission No.', Driving Licence No. , Passport No.,  PDS card. Have tried & listed 6 of them, but we might have more depending on the geography.


Bharat GDP flourished on Services sector for the last decade- 2000-2010, which includes IT sector, our society has enjoyed the benefits of IT revolution, our Middle class has grown because of this class.  We are most sought after IT professionals in the world as of date. Does that also mean that our IT companies use these resource to make huge profits?  We have a huge resource available in IT industry, which could have been used by the Govt. of India.


Now wonder if 40k Cr. was available, could we have not computerized the census data?
Once the Census data, which is physically verified is computerized, could we not generate UID nos., to these people. Only wonder if we have sent govt. employees to verify data in each & every household, it could have been right if they also carried all the information which is required for the other departments.  


UID is just another ploy by this Government to use Nitin N, as he was wasted by his own company, today they are commanding situations to fool people. UID is an exercise just to transfer the Treasury money from central to these cards/bank accounts, purely for VOTE BANK POLITICS.


Hope Bharatiya realize this....


Jai Bharat ...Vande Mataram 

4 comments:

  1. Rangaji, your conclusion, "every Bharitiya realizes, rather, should realize the VOTE BANK POLITICS” hidden behind this irrelevant concept called UID paved way for the beginning of my thoughts. I sat thinking what is this UID?.

    Well, the concept of UID, **Unique Identification ** came up first in February 2009 under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), an agency formulated under the Govt. of India for implementing the AADHAR Scheme or creation of a Unique Identification Data Base!!

    First of all, though noble in the international context, it is but an arduous venture to fulfill in the Indian context. Nevertheless, amidst its many weak clauses, I fundamentally disagree with one basic clause in UID. It stipulates that:

    QUOTE:-
    “The UID will link a person’s Passport Number, Driving License, PAN card, Bank Accounts, Address, Voter ID, etc. and all this information will be checked through a database. So, for example, if someone has different addresses on PAN and driving license, is liable to get caught. Those who will opt out of this program will have much inconvenience in doing business, operating bank accounts and other offices which will require a UID”.
    UNQUOTE:-

    So, does this not imply a logistical polarization? Assume, I live in Mumbai now. 10 years later I opt to live in Chennai. Under UID, I am liable to be imprisoned because of the obvious change in address. How can this be? A Social Security Card in the US or an Emirates ID Card in the United Arab Emirates does not stipulate adherence to one particular address *life long*. It does carry a number that validates you, your assets, your family and your current residence regardless of wherever you are “within” the Country. UID does not give you that freedom in its current form.

    What is outrightly curious is the fact that the surge in the number of Identification Cards that an Indian National stuffs his wallet with now far exceeds the worth and purpose it defines. For Example:-

    1)Pan Card No.
    2)Ration Card No.
    3)Voters ID No.
    4)Driving License No.
    5)Bank Account No.
    6)Proof of Address ID No.
    7)Passport No. / PIO No.

    … so on and so forth to name a few thus leaving the common man in curious dilemma as to how many more ID Cards would become imperative to prove his citizenship according to the UPA 2 regime in their tireless effort to facilitate Corruption wherever possible.

    To me, personally, the UID misadventure has already backfired. One must recall that way back in March or April of 2010 itself, i.e. within a year of UID commencement, there was fierce criticism from responsible quarters questioning the authenticity of this exercise. There were questions as to the legitimacy of the biometrics entry into the Unique Data Bank. There were questions on the competence and loyalty of those officials monitoring the iris and finger printing techniques.

    UID is also being linked to the National Population Register being concluded by the Census authorities. The ramifications here are plenty because our parochial Census is Caste based which ultimately fragments the Hindus and unifies the Muslims & Christians. Under such circumstance, the UID exercise needlessly throws open an avenue for illegal migrants of minority religious backgrounds to get these IDs and thus allow them access the government services and programs uninhibitedly under the Minority Reservation Quota!. Funnily, the responsibility of proving the identiy of resident-ship falls squarely on the resident and not on the UIDAI!! Without UID, we have over a million Bangladeshi Muslims as illegal voting citizens of India. It is anybody’s guess what would happen under the UID edict??

    This, of course, is my personal viewpoint.

    You have sounded off a warning that all should indeed realize prior to falling into a trap, well conceived by a lackluster Government headed by a conniving political party whose agenda is nothing more but to "break the nation"!

    Well done Sir.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Ranganaathan, I am writing to you on behalf of The Viewspaper regarding a major event on Twitter. If interested, please contact us at garimao@theviewspaper.net

    Regards,
    Garima

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wish the blogger and the commending commentators do more homework than keep parroting same old lame old views. To propose that the census database be used to issue unique ids shows a lack of depth in implementing any large scale database system. The census people did consider it and chose to use the UID database.
    Read up the background first before venturing into airing views. Otherwise what difference is there between countless self proclaimed experts and us?
    That's the least anyone could do as responsible citizens.

    ReplyDelete

Your comments are valuable, but i expect it to be sensible.