[Bahujan-forum] Representation to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance on the Draft NIA Bill meant to provide legislative sanction to the UID (Aadhar) Project

-- [Friends are requested to write to the Standing Committee giving their views on the draft NIA Bill and the Aadhar project.]

To

The Chairman,

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance,

New Delhi

 <comfinance@sansad.nic.in>

Sir,

I have come to understand that the draft National Identification Authority of India (NIA) Bill is currently under your consideration and it is being deliberated by the Standing Committee. 

This Bill, as we know, seeks to constitute a statutory authority to be called the National Identification Authority of India (NIAI) and lay down its powers and functions, besides the framework for issuing unique identity (UID) numbers to be known as Aadhaar numbers. And this Aadhar project is designed to deeply impact the lives of 1.2 billion Indian residents. 

Given the immense importance of the project, I, as a concerned citizen of India, will like to present my following misgivings about the project for your due consideration in the process of deliberating the draft Bill, which will provide legislative sanction to the subject project, and formulating your recommendations.

1. As I understand, this mammoth project, aimed at covering 1.2 billion Indian residents, has been launched without any feasibility study carried out and any such report having been prepared and presented to the Indian parliament let alone putting it in the public domain for sharing of views.

2. I also understand that the project, the final cost of which is going to be exceedingly high - maybe a whopping Rs. 1,500 crore as per a figure quoted by the Times of India, has been launched without any cost-benefit analysis and comparisons with other available/feasible options. No such report has been presented to the Indian parliament let alone putting it in the public domain for sharing of views.

3. There are also serious apprehensions about the data safety - who get to access the individual data, legitimately or illegitimately, and to what uses these could be put.

4. There are also serious apprehensions about state surveillance and profiling of individual citizens and specific groups or communities.

Hope you will do your best to ensure that the legislative stamp of approval on the Aadhar project in terms of the enactment of the NIA Bill will be provided only after presentation and widespread deliberations of a feasibility report and cost-benefit analysis. You'll also ensure that the misgivings as listed in points 3 & 4 above are fully clarified and adequately addressed during the deliberations conducted by you.

I'll be highly obliged if you kindly acknowledge this missive.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely

Sukla Sen, EKTA (Committee for Communal Amity),

Mumbai

25 01 2011 

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Palash Biswas
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