The Hindu: Hayderabad: Tuesday, 06 May 2014.
After the
over enthusiastic administration made people run around by linking Aadhar card
with Gas supply, it has now come to light that the gas agencies never even
accessed the Aadhar database to verify the authenticity of the Aadhar
cardholders.
Worse, the
agencies have given away the subsidies after just checking with the banks
concerned, raising serious questions over bogus beneficiaries.
This major
flip-flop was exposed in a case hearing at the Central Information Commission
(CIC) pertaining to a Hyderabad based RTI activist, C.J. Karira against UIDAI
(Unique Identification Authority of India).
Mr. Karira
had approached the CIC over unsatisfactory reply from UIDAI to some of his
queries.
“The
respondents (Aadhar official) stated that the use of the UID number, provided
by the appellant to his gas agency and bank, was for the limited purpose of
ensuring that the person being provided the gas cylinders and subsidy was the
same. It did not involve authentication/matching by those agencies with the
data held by the respondents,” read one of the contents of the order passed on
March 18, 2014 after the completion of arguments from both sides. It also came
to light that the UIDAI does not have a procedure in place for those who want
to get their data surrendered or deleted from the database.
“The Aadhar
is a national fraud which caused a loss of Rs 500 crore. What is the use of
forcing people to waste their time and energy to take Aadhar card for gas
subsidies when the gas agencies do not even check the database,” wondered Mr.
Karira.
The RTI
activist also realised that anybody could get a gas subsidy by telling random
Aadhar number.
“I was also
shocked to know that UIDAI does not have a fool proof system to record all
those accessing the data raising security concerns. How can they not have a
mechanism to delete Aadhar users when the Supreme Court has declared that
Aadhar is not mandatory?” he asked.
.JPG)
.JPG)
