BANGALORE | NEW DELHI: India plans to introduce a law for regulating the ambitious programme of giving unique identity numbers to nearly 1.2 billion citizens, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Nandan Nilekani confirmed to ET last week. “It’s happening. The UIDAI would be proposing a UIDAI Act to provide for statutory powers and responsibilities to the authority. This Act would address the issues of privacy and data security of the UIDAI database,” Mr Nilekani said.
In fact, the authority was formed last year with a road map to be established by an act of Parliament. The proposed law will authorise the UID to collect identity information, such as name, gender, date of birth, parents’ name, address and finger prints, from people voluntarily seeking a unique identity number.
Mr Nilekani added that the draft proposed UIDAI Bill will be submitted to the ministry of law shortly. Preparations are already underway to prepare a draft legislation and submit it to the concerned as per extant procedures, another UID official added. Constitutional experts like Subhash C Kashyap, former secretary general of the lower house of the Indian Parliament, say a legal act will help the UID authority strengthen its case.
“Planning Commission is in itself not a constitutional body. Getting a sanction of the law for such a body like UID will strengthen its case. To exercise abundant caution in their functions, such bodies often seek legislative approval,” he said. The government has already allotted Rs 1,900 crore to the authority this year. And the finance commission plans to spend another Rs 3,000 crore to give Rs 100 as an incentive to every ‘below-poverty-line’ citizen as a motivation to get enrolled.
Over the past few weeks, several civil right activists and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have been protesting against the identity project for lack of proper legislation and concerns of privacy. “Passing a law won’t be easy for the government. We are definitely going to oppose it,” said Sanjay Parikh, advocate for human rights at the Supreme Court. Others like People’s Union for Civil Liberties say mammoth citizen data residing in a single database is what worries them. “The authority will have lots of data regarding a citizen that can be misused by vested interests,” said Pushkar Raj, general secretary of the organisation.
Meanwhile, activists also want the government to take a sympathetic view towards thousands of refugees from neighbouring countries, such as Bangladesh, while running the identity programme. “The government should take a sympathetic view towards them and consider them as citizens. They should be allotted UID numbers,” said Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court and a human rights activist. Mr Sachar is the author of controversial report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India.
ET
In fact, the authority was formed last year with a road map to be established by an act of Parliament. The proposed law will authorise the UID to collect identity information, such as name, gender, date of birth, parents’ name, address and finger prints, from people voluntarily seeking a unique identity number.
Mr Nilekani added that the draft proposed UIDAI Bill will be submitted to the ministry of law shortly. Preparations are already underway to prepare a draft legislation and submit it to the concerned as per extant procedures, another UID official added. Constitutional experts like Subhash C Kashyap, former secretary general of the lower house of the Indian Parliament, say a legal act will help the UID authority strengthen its case.
“Planning Commission is in itself not a constitutional body. Getting a sanction of the law for such a body like UID will strengthen its case. To exercise abundant caution in their functions, such bodies often seek legislative approval,” he said. The government has already allotted Rs 1,900 crore to the authority this year. And the finance commission plans to spend another Rs 3,000 crore to give Rs 100 as an incentive to every ‘below-poverty-line’ citizen as a motivation to get enrolled.
Over the past few weeks, several civil right activists and NGOs (non-governmental organisations) have been protesting against the identity project for lack of proper legislation and concerns of privacy. “Passing a law won’t be easy for the government. We are definitely going to oppose it,” said Sanjay Parikh, advocate for human rights at the Supreme Court. Others like People’s Union for Civil Liberties say mammoth citizen data residing in a single database is what worries them. “The authority will have lots of data regarding a citizen that can be misused by vested interests,” said Pushkar Raj, general secretary of the organisation.
Meanwhile, activists also want the government to take a sympathetic view towards thousands of refugees from neighbouring countries, such as Bangladesh, while running the identity programme. “The government should take a sympathetic view towards them and consider them as citizens. They should be allotted UID numbers,” said Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court and a human rights activist. Mr Sachar is the author of controversial report on the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India.
ET
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