AADHAAR

 

NOT LINKED TO AADHAAR

 

AADHAAR TO BE LINKED WITH VOTER ID

 

AADHAAR

 

AADHAAR WITH VOTER ID ISSUED

 

CENTRE RETRACTS CAUTION ON AADHAAR COPIES

 

AADHAAR

 

AADHAAR FRAUD

 

AADHAAR

 

Govt withdraws UIDAI’s Aadhaar caution note after flutter

Govt withdraws UIDAI’s Aadhaar caution note after flutter

Pankaj.Doval@timesgroup.com

New Delhi : Aadhaar caught the Centre on the wrong foot over safety concerns after a statement issued by the Bengaluru unit of the Unique Identification Authority of India — the agency that issues the 12-digit unique identity number — created a flutter when it asked people not to share their info with “unlicensed private entities” such as hotels or movie halls as it can be “misused”. As the advisory started creating chatter on social media, the ministry of information technology — the nodal ministry for UIDAI — had to beat a hasty retreat, reassuring there are enough safeguards and protection within the Aadhaar system, and asking people to continue to share the unique ID number, but after exercising “normal prudence”.

“In view of the possibility of the misinterpretation of the press release, the same stands withdrawn with immediate effect,” the IT ministry said, uncharacteristically issuing the clarification on Sunday. Over the last few years, Aadhaar has become the most trusted identity proof with hospitals, hotels and employers insisting on its photocopies, though it is “voluntary”. Most individuals have been sharing photocopies, with some noticing they have been misused in documents. In case of several agencies, devices for biometric authentication were never deployed with UIDAI pushing the use of QR codes embedded in Aadhaar cards. › Safety fears, P 9 The use of Aadhaar photocopies has created safety fears Two days ago, UIDAI Bengaluru office issued a press release under the heading ‘Caution’, asking people to be careful when giving out Aadhaar for certain verification processes. “Do not share (a) photocopy of your Aadhaar with any organization because it can be misused.

Alternatively, please use a masked Aadhaar which displays only the last 4 digits of your Aadhaar number. It can be downloaded from UIDAI’s official website," it said, further adding, "Only those organisations that have obtained a User License from the UIDAI can use Aadhaar for establishing the identity of a person. Unlicensed private entities like hotels or film halls are not permitted to collect or keep copies of Aadhaar card. It is an offence under the Aadhaar Act 2016. If a private entity demands to see your Aadhaar card, or seeks a photocopy of your Aadhaar card, please verify that they have (a) valid User License from the UIDAI."

While Aadhaar has proved to be safe, the use of photocopies has created safety fears. The UIDAI move to first alert citizens about not sharing Aadhar photocopies and then subsequently retract its statement, has kicked off a row with data security experts, former bureaucrats, activists and political leaders 5/30/22, 7:13 AM about:blank about:blank 2/2 hitting out at UIDAI. “In the initial release, the UIDAI admitted to long pending concerns with Aadhaar, which were debated and proven in the court. UIDAI always insisted they have improved Aadhaar’s security by bringing in virtual ID, masked Aadhaar numbers, but has never promoted them enough,” Kodali Srinivas, a data security expert, said.

“This release accepting privacy and security concerns with Aadhaar has been withdrawn again, because the Government doesn’t want people to distrust and stop using Aadhaar.” French security researcher Baptiste Robert, who exposed several Aadhaar leaks in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, said that four years ago he had warned about the issues with the Aadhaar.

AADHAAR

UIDAI asked public from giving Aadhaar for verification

Most individuals have been sharing the photocopies, with some noticing that they have been misused in their loan and other documents. In case several agencies, devices for biometric authentication were never deployed with UIDAI pushing the use of QR codes embedded in Aadhaar cards. Two days ago, UIDAI’s Bangalore regional office issued a press release under the heading ‘Caution’, asking people to be careful when giving out Aadhaar for certain verification processes.

“Do not share (a) photocopy of your Aadhaar with any organization because it can be misused. Alternatively, please use a masked Aadhaar which displays only the last 4 digits of your Aadhaar number. It can be downloaded from UIDAI’s official website,” it said. UIDAI caution note causes flutter, junked New Delhi : Aadhaar caught the government on the wrong foot over safety concerns after a statement issued by the Bangalore unit of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) – the agency that issues the 12-digit unique identity number – created a flutter when it asked people not to share their info with “unlicensed private entities” such as hotels or movie halls as it can be “misused”.

As the advisory started creating chatter on social media, the IT ministry – the nodal ministry for UIDAI – had to beat a hasty retreat, reassuring there are enough safeguards and protection within the Aadhaar system, and asking people to continue to share the unique ID number, but after exercising “normal prudence”. “In view of the possibility of the misinterpretation of the press release, the same stands withdrawn with immediate effect,” the IT ministry said, uncharacteristically issuing the clarification on Sunday. Over the last few years, Aadhaar has become the most trusted identity proof with hospitals, hotels and employers insisting on Aadhaar photocopies, although it is "voluntary".

AADHAAR

 

AADHAAR

 

AADHAAR

Aadhaar

 

Aadhaar, Again

Aadhaar, Again

Electoral roll data linkage to Aadhaar ecosystem is a big change. Ordinary citizens mustn’t suffer

22.12.2021

Amendments to the Representation of the People (RP) Act requiring voters to furnish their Aadhaar numbers to electoral registration officers were introduced, considered and passed in both Houses of Parliament, all in a few hours, without any meaningful debate. Union law minister Kiren Rijiju cited the need to clean up the electoral rolls – specifically, RP Act provisions barring people from being registered as voters from more than one constituency, and preventing bogus voting.

Rijiju also claimed the amendments met the Puttaswamy judgment’s triple test of legality, need, and proportionality, which is now used to assess the permissible limits of invasion of privacy. Yes, this Bill did pass Parliament unlike Election Commission’s 2015 seeding of over 30 crore voter IDs with Aadhaar. But the achievement of the legality requirement to meet privacy safeguards would have been bolstered manifold by a thorough discussion in Parliament, allowing further finetuning of the Act’s provisions. In following the template set by farm laws, GoI may have unnecessarily exposed itself to stiff legal challenges, even if street agitations like those by farmers don’t happen.

Since the Bill only sanctions Aadhaar number and not biometric verification, it essentially boils down to a test of identity between details in the voter ID and Aadhaar card. Even small variances in name, address, age etc could see lower level bureaucrats enjoying outsized discretion to accept or reject electoral roll entries. RP Act’s new Section 23(6) allows those unable to furnish Aadhaar numbers for “prescribed” reasons to produce alternate documents. But the poor, without other documents to prove their identities and whose details may vary between their Aadhaar and voter card, could be hit hardest.

Also, while Rijiju has said the linking is voluntary and not mandatory, amendments say electoral officers “may” ask for Aadhaar. This “may” may become worryingly widespread. Further, Section 23(5) suggests that GoI could notify a date in the gazette by which time every person in the electoral roll “may” intimate his/her Aadhaar number to authorities. The worry is what happens if a citizen doesn’t do this.

The right to vote is a statutory right and it mustn’t be denied to citizens without rigorous due process and just cause. EC must ensure every electoral roll entry struck off through this new process is independently verified by booth level officers on the ground. The impending big change to our electoral rolls should be foolproof and abuse-proof.

Bill to link Aadhaar with voter card to be tabled in Lok Sabha today

Bill to link Aadhaar with voter card to be tabled in Lok Sabha today

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:20.12.2021

Law minister Kiren Rijiju will introduce the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in the Lok Sabha on Monday.

The bill to amend the Representation of the People Act seeks to bring in key reforms including voluntary linkage of voter ID with Aadhaar so as to weed out bogus and duplicate entries in electoral rolls. The matter is listed in the legislative business of the Lower House for Monday.

The bill also provides that this amendment will not put any voters at any disadvantage as “no application for inclusion of name in the electoral rolls shall be denied and no entries in the electoral rolls shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed”. Such people will be allowed to furnish other alternative documents as may be prescribed, according to the bill.

The amendment will also provide registration of new voters on four qualifying dates in place of the existing January 1 of every year. At present, anyone turning 18 on or before January 1 will be eligible to be registered as a voter. Anyone born after January 1 will have to get enlisted only after a year. According to the bill, along with January 1, there will be three other qualifying dates — April 1, July 1 and October 1 — in every calendar year.

The proposed amendments also allow the elections to become gender neutral for service voters. The amendment will help replace the word ‘wife’ with the word ‘spouse’ making the statutes “gender neutral”. At present, an Armyman’s wife is entitled to be enrolled as a service voter, but a woman officer’s husband is not. With ‘wife’ being replaced by the term ‘spouse’, this will change.

Aadhaar linking to help voters: UIDAI ex-chief

Aadhaar linking to help voters: UIDAI ex-chief

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:17.12.2021

The option of linking Voters’ ID with Aadhaar is a path-breaking reform that will enhance transparency as well as convenience in the election process, making change of address and verification simpler and faster.

Enabling easier change of address will allow people to register in a new location and participate in elections while also weeding out multiple registrations, said former UIDAI chief and former finance secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey.

“Even though the linking is voluntary, I am sure that given the sheer convenience, more and more voters will opt for linkage of Aadhaar with their voter Icards and take advantage of the facility. Just like people today voluntarily offer their Aadhaar for opening bank accounts, mobile phone connection and vaccination,” Pandey told TOI.

The linking option will be a global first as no other country has such a data base of biometric identities. There are provisions in the Aadhaar Act and the EC system to maintain the integrity, security and privacy of the data. Since the verification is controlled by the Aadhaar system, the security will be higher as so far there is no breach of data held in UIDAI servers.

As of now, when a person moves locations, the process of registering as a voter needed either a paperbased application or scanning which could become time- consuming.

Cabinet clears draft Bill for linking Aadhaar & voter ID

Cabinet clears draft Bill for linking Aadhaar & voter ID

Will Be Voluntary; Part Of Proposed Electoral Refoms

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:16.12.2021

The Union cabinet on Wednesday cleared proposed amendments to the electoral law seeking to bring in key reforms such as voluntary linkage of voter ID with Aadhaar so as to weed out bogus and duplicate entries in electoral rolls.

Another reform sought to be implemented is on allowing multiple qualifying dates in a year, rather than only January 1, for those above 18 years, to register themselves as voters, sources said. The draft Bill to amend the Representation of the People Act (RPA) approved by the Cabinet and likely to be brought before Parliament in the ongoing winter session, purportedly proposes to make gender-neutral a provision allowing only the wife of a male service voter to register as a voter in the same constituency as him.

A fourth likely amendment seeks to empower the Election Commission to requisition premises for any purpose related to elections and not just for creating polling stations and storage of ballot boxes.

Sources said the Bill to amend the RP Act proposes to empower the electoral registration officer to seek Aadhaar number of existing as well as new voters, albeit only on a voluntary basis. The Aadhaar number will only be used for the purpose of voter authentication.

While the multiple dates for registration of newly-eligible voter — the cabinet is said to have cleared four dates of January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 in a given year — will be made possible through an amendment to Section 14(b) of the RP Act, the gender-neutral registration facility for spouses of service voters is sought to be implemented by amending Section 20(6) of the Act.

In 2015, EC took up linking task

Also, the proposed amendment to Section160(1)A of the RP Act will empower the EC to requisition premises for any purpose including for housing central paramilitary forces, its employees and observers.

Incidentally, the EC had in 2015 taken up linking of voter card and Aadhaar number as part of its National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP). Around 32 crore Aadhaar numbers were seeded by the time the EC decided to abandon the programme in view of the Supreme Court judgment restricting the use of Aadhaar.

Following the SC judgment in 2019 allowing collection of Aadhaar with due amendment in the Aadhaar Act, the EC wrote to the law ministry seeking a suitable amendment to enable mandatory linking of voter card with Aadhaar. This was agreed to by the law ministry. EC officials said Aadhaar-EPIC linkage will also help realise the commission’s plan to work towards secure, possibly electronic, voting to help migrant voters — including domestic workers, migrant labourers etc — exercise their franchise even if they are not in the constituency where they are registered as voters.

Aadhaar necessary for Transtan waitlisting

Aadhaar necessary for Transtan waitlisting

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:16.11.2021

Organ failure patients registering for waitlist and relatives of brain dead patients (donors) registering for organ donation should submit Aadhaar details for verification with the state transplant authority (Transtan), a GO released on October 25 said.

While activists and transplant coordinators said it would be difficult to seek such information from relatives of braindead patients at a time when annual donations are falling, health minister Ma Subramanian told reporters it was done to encourage and honor donor relatives.

In April, Transtan member secretary Dr R Kanthimathi proposed to introduce an application form for authentication to stop malpractices such as use of fake Aadhaar cards. The ministry of electronics and information technology gave its nod in July.