Heated discussion on UID

Ashok Dalwai, Deputy Director, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said unique identification (UID) card was a legal database collection system and there was no chance of the data being misused.

A member in the audience said that there was no mandate for the collection of data . Who has given the mandate to UIDAI to collect the data, he questioned. In Gujarat, database collected for the issue of ration cards was used for committing atrocities on the Muslim community, he added.

Many in the audience said that public money running into crores of rupees is being used on a project not recognised by the Constitution. Dalwai in his reply said that the money spent on the project is subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG)
Prabhakar said that payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) can be accounted for and it will be sent directly to the beneficiaries’ accounts, which can be operated by the beneficiaries using their UID cards.

He said that the project is now handling more than six lakh people per day. Other countries still do not have the technology to do what India is doing with the UID project, he added.

Speaking on the drawback of the system, Somasekhar K from Grahak Shakti and Mathew Thomas, civic activist said that the data collected was for a commercial purpose in the interest of the corporate sector.

They argued that as the data is not in the hands of the individual, a person loses his or her identity. Besides, there is the threat of information hacking and security flaws.