The Lower House of the Parliament, Lok Sabha, on Thursday, began debate on Aadhar Amendment Bill that provides voluntarily use of Aadhaar number to establish identity, by authentication or offline verification.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, while moving the Aadhar and Other Laws Amendment Bill, 2019 in the House for consideration, said the Union Government has saved over 7.48 lakh crores in past 5 years.
He added, ‘We have saved money siphoned off by middlemen as Adhar proved its usefulness’.
The Bill was cleared in Lok Sabha on January 4 but could not be taken up for consideration by the Rajya Sabha. However, The Union Cabinet had in June last month cleared the bill. This legislation will allow individuals to offer voluntarily biometric ID as a means of identity verification for obtaining services such as opening a bank account, or new SIM connection etc.
Hailing his government, Ravi Shankar Prasad said, the Adhar Amendment Bill will give an option to children to cancel their Adhar number on attaining the age of 18 years.
The Bill also sought to omit the Section 57 of the Aadhar Act relating to the use of Aadhar by private entities. The changes have been brought up by amending the Aadhaar Act, Indian Telegraph Act, and Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
While Congress Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary accused the government of the day continuously resorting to ordinances. Hailing his previous government, Chowdhury said Adhar was the brainchild of Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government.
Talking about the importance of privacy, Ranjan added that the government should first bring a Data Protection Bill.
While Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also slammed the government over the Adhar Amendment Bill. Speaking in the Lok Sabha, first-time parliamentarian Moitra said, ‘I’m giving up my biometric data, my most personal data to a private agency. If Aadhar ecosystem fails you’re saying that there are viable means to recourse but I don’t know what they are. They haven’t been specified’.
Attacking the government over Privacy, Moitra said, ‘There is no standard of privacy & security today. There is no Data Protection Act. In the absence of data protection, how can you ask me to give up my information to a private agency? This is integral to the Bill, you can’t have the cart before the horse’.
Mahua Moitra, TMC MP in LS: There is no standard of privacy & security today. There is no Data Protection Act. In the absence of a data protection how can you ask me to give up my information to a private agency? This is integral to the Bill, you can't have cart before the horse. https://t.co/YGFJfqThrt
— ANI (@ANI) July 4, 2019
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