Bengaluru: With the Lok Sabha passing the Aadhaar Bill, how does it now impact the common man? Member of Parliament, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, says on his Facebook page that there are many loopholes in the Bill, the biggest one being that the Aadhaar card only carries the name, age and address of a person, which alone cannot ensure better delivery of subsidies.
“Aadhaar is a database that contains three pieces of information — name, age and address. It is not possible for any government to use this data as a way to better deliver subsidies. Aadhaar can only be effective if used with other databases or platforms that perform the function of identification and targeting,” he argues.
Like lakhs of Indians, who have raised concerns about data security, he too notes that the Bill “has several other loopholes with regard to data security and integrity, privacy and national security,” and suggests this move by the government be debated and discussed more.
“With this legislation, Aadhaar must now move from the world of spin and hype to being a real, legally backed identity verification platform working as part of the subsidy delivery JAM platform,” he stresses.
Namma Bengaluru Foundation CEO, Sridhar Pabbasetty, feels the 2016 Bill is a watered down version of the previous Bill and calls for more emphasis on safeguarding people’s personal details.”
Although the parliament sanction for the Bill is a step in the right direction, the Union government must fix the loopholes. We need a better defined Bill," he says.
What is Aadhaar Bill 2016?
The Bill provides for statutory backing for the Aadhaar scheme for transferring government subsidies and benefits to those entitled to them. It also stresses on good governance and efficient, transparent and targeted delivery of subsidies, benefits and services to individuals with unique identity numbers.
Who will benefit?
Those dependent on government subsidies will benefit as they will each receive a unique identification (UID) number.
