15 Lakh crore Fraud on the Nation in the name of Unique Identity Number

Another Scam is the offing in the name of Unique Identity Number . Nation wide awareness campaigns have been started to  educate Public about this upcoming fraud which have serious implications not only on Nation’s Exchequer but also on National security. The direct involvement of CIA has raised more eye brows about the real motive behind this Nation wide initiative.

Following is the correspondence between HK and Shri V K Somasekhar ,Managing Trustee: Grahak Shakti (Voluntary, Non profit, Non Political Consumer Organisation) who is spearheading the Campaign along with various other movements.

What is UID?

 The UIDAI is a government body mandated with the task of assigning every single resident a Unique Identity (UID) number. The unique number is linked to the individual’s biometrics – ten fingerprints & iris scan.

 Can you shed more light into it’s background? 
 
Very difficult to answer as there is no clear document or project report on this huge project. Infact this has been our demand from beginning but now responded. Hence we need to collate various information to derive at the objective!

The Government of India (GOI) undertook an effort to provide a clear identity to residents first in 1993, with the issue of photo identity cards by the Election Commission and subsequently in 2003 (During NDA regime) when it approved the Multipurpose National Identity Card (MNIC).
 
 The scheme was an offshoot of the recommendations of the Subramanyam Committee on the Kargil war, The Citizenship Act was amended for the purpose. Anti-terrorism and combating cross-border militancy, massive infiltration on the borders etc were its primary purpose. It was under the Citizenship Act and part of the National Population Register. Instead of a simple smart card with photo and basic particulars such as, name, parent’s name, age, place of birth, and address, as visualised by NDA, the Congress version, attempts to use biometrics (all ten fingers and iris scans).
 
Isn’t this a Noble Scheme ?

 Whereas NDA’s intent cannot be doubted as it wanted an ID card (Smart Card) for Indian citizens. Congress wants to issue a number (stored in a database, set up and managed by foreign companies,) to all residents in India, whether they are citizens or not. Instead of an ID card for citizens, each “Resident” in India would be given a number, which is linked to his / her biometrics and stored in a central database for use by public and private service providers. The biometrics is to be used for authentication of identity by query to the central database.
    
The Congress (INC) cleverly hijacked BJP’s agenda for the UID project to perpetuate a big fraud on the Citizens of this Country. It is the greatest danger to national security, and a colossal waste of public money that a Country like ours can ill afford, which would merely be transferred into pockets of private parties

The government has circumvented Parliament by setting up an UIDAI [Unique ID Authority of India], as an “attached office” of the Planning Commission, allocating a huge budget of Rs. 1,950 Crores, without  enacting a law for its functioning. An “Authority”, purporting to exercise authority on behalf of the Government with the status of a Cabinet Rank cannot function outside the pale of law. Clearly, UIDAI is functioning illegally.

Congress is out to criticise the RSS-BJP for propping up the Civil Society. NAC is nothing but civil society activists drafting several contentious bills including the “Food security bill”, “Communal violence bill etc” . Similarly Sri Nandan Nilekani is not even from the Civil society and at best a Marketing man from an IT Industry with no technological background!! So the double speak is clearly visible and exposed.
 
When confronted with this, UIDAI quickly has a Bill [The National Identity Authority of India, Bill 2010] drafted by private parties, a law firm, and placed before Parliament. Please note that the name of the Authority has been changed from “Unique Identity Authority” to “National Identity Authority”. The Bill is yet to be discussed in Parliament. It has been referred to the Standing Committee of Parliament on Finance headed by Sri Yeswanth Sinha of the BJP. The UIDAI Chairperson was summoned and when he was questioned on some of the key aspects, he stated that he had not come prepared and requested for more time. This was almost 6 months ago.
 
UID numbers are to be issued under Sec 2 of the N I A Bill. UIDAI is already aggressively going ahead issuing UID numbers, which is illegal. The Bill empowers the Authority to make contracts, purchase equipment and take actions necessary to fulfil the objectives of the Bill. Already, the UIDAI has appointed contractors without legal sanction. The UIDAI wants Parliament to sanctify these contracts retrospectively, when Parliament approves the Bill. Justice Sri. Rama Jois, member of Rajya Sabha, has termed the actions of UIDAI in issuing UID numbers, as illegal and enunciated his thoughts. He has asked for a special session of the Rajya Sabha for discussing the matter. Eminent jurists, including, Justices V R Krishna Iyer and Justice A P Shah have signed statements to the press calling upon the Government to stop the UID project. All civil society members of the National Advisory Council are also against the project.
 
  Neither the Government nor UIDAI has bothered to carry out a feasibility and / or cost-benefit study of the UID project. Therefore it has to be arrived at by rough calculations. “a guesstimate as reported by the  frontline magazine puts the cost of the project without considering the recurring cost at around INR 15 lakh crore (US $33.33 billion) (Hindu, 2009). The cost of failure of such an initiative would be huge for a nation like India which has 27.50 per cent (2004-2005)3 of its population living below poverty line and around 45.9 per cent children, under three years of age, suffering from malnutrition every year.
 
  Two studies, one by the London School of Economics [on a similar UK ID card scheme], in 2005, and another in 2011 by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad [IIM (A)] on our UID project have shown  that these projects would not achieve their objectives. UK has since scrapped the project. The project would merely result in benefits to huge sums of public money into private coffers, as mentioned above.
 
What is all about CIA Involvement?

A number of private agencies are involved in the UID project. Biometric technology vendor is a US company called “L 1 Identity Solutions”. It has ex-CIA officials on its board of directors. L 1 provides similarX services to USA’s CIA and FBI. It has been taken over by French Company and is under scrutiny by US authorities. According to an IT expert, L1 and NADRA, the Pakistan unique identity agency, appear to have  been created on the same business model.“Staffed strongly by persons with intelligence (quasi-military) links, the major goals of both agencies are to do business with their respective governments, and they
 succeed to the extent that they have virtually no competition. And this is the company UIDAI has welcomed into India,” says an expert.

Accenture, another US company, is a major vendor of UIDAI. This company would set up the database and manage it. UIDAI has been saying that the data would be stored using “Cloud computing” meaning, that private servers would be used for data storage. These are serious national security concerns.

Why is it not ‘Unique’
 
The system of getting the UID number is so flimsy. They rely upon the Identity’s already accepted today by various authorities. The premise that it was started was to curb a bogus identity that is why the term `Unique’ was introduced. Presently the UIDAI does not verify citizenship while issuing UID numbers. Illegal immigrants and even foreign militants / terrorists could acquire the UID number. Here is one example that is already published of one SIMI terrorist who has been arrested with a UID number.
 
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/MP-cops-recover-fake-UID-card-from-SIMI-activist/802406/
 
 Faking of fingerprints at a cost, as little as, Rs. 30, per operation, was publicly demonstrated to the Secretary for e-governance, Government of Karnataka in Dec 2010. He was stunned and did not have any answer.

India has an estimated 300 Million people who are illiterate. They affix their fingerprints on several documents for a commercial transaction, such as transfer of property, wills etc. Fingerprints are used as corroborative evidence in criminal and civil suits. If the fingerprints of the entire population of the country were to be available with many private and government agencies, the justice system, which relies on these for corroboration, would be severely handicapped, having to prove first that the fingerprint was not placed on the document or scene of crime by any of these agencies.

From the above, this should be obvious. The project is a colossal waste of public funds. It would achieve neither its publicly stated aims, nor even the hidden ones. It could be misused by politicians and bureaucrats to inflict incalculable harm on innocent people. The UK Home Secretary called “Intrusive bullying” and an “Assault on liberty”

4) Apart from this wider picture are you aware of any other frauds being reported in the name of this UID?

We have virtually researched on the project and there are plenty of more information that are coming out every day. For instance: In Karnataka the E-governance department that is helping out on the project have started collecting data in Tumkur and Mysore. In Mysore TV 9 a local Channel in Kannada did a sting operation and revealed that unscrupulous elements are authorised to assist in issuing the UID number This team even got a fake ID for the Chairman of the Project Sri Nandan Nilekani!! Further they also obtained a number on behalf of Ali an extremist who is cooling his heals in Bengaluru jail. Thus terrorist infiltrating the Country and getting UID number is not difficult they said. The entire episode is loaded on You Tube for every one to view and understand. We could send you the links.

Another intresting aspect that has not been mentioned in my response is that we found UIDA appointing several Registrar;s giving them the authority to enroll.

A look at the types of businesses of the registrars is interesting.There are advertising companies [Deepak Advertising – serial 47, Printing presses [Eagle press – serial 54, Kaadambari Press – serial 99], micro-finance companies [serial 61 & 96 (Janalakshmi Financial Services Pvt Ltd – name of owner / director not given)], stock brokers [serial 62], trading companies [serial number 73 and 74], travel and ticketing agents [serial 80], infrastructure companies [Serial 132], construction companies [serial 149 & 172, 178, 209], chemical traders [serial 151], sugar mills [serial 160], Insurance companies [Peerless 183, which was under investigation] appointed as registrars.Eagle Press has three (3) of its units or associates listed as registrars in serial numbers 54, 55, and 56.

So you can imagine the kind of fraud that the Government is doing.  

Can you give the fdetails of those who are spearheading this campaign?

Col Mathew Thomas, from Citizens Action Forum. He is a retired Army officer and missile scientist.)+91-98800-00401 Email [email protected]
 
Sunil Abraham on phones: +91-4114-8130; +91-96111-00817 Email ID [email protected]

Somasekhar V K-Managing Trustee: Grahak Shakti (Voluntary, Non profit, Non Political Consumer Organisation)
 
‘Say No 2 UID’ is another group on Face Book. A fund of info on UID is available in a

http://aadhararticles.blogspot.com/
http://questioningaadhaar.blogspot.com/*

Youtube Links
http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=B67A798223F96E73
 

Responses