Non government organizations have raised a red banner against the Unique ID project stating that the project and UID Authority have no legal foundation and has been established by just an executive order.

Sunil Abraham of the Centre for Internet & Society while speaking to Governance Now said that, “The privacy law has to be first in place then the UID project and not the other way around.”

Abraham added that the poor people may not be able to even get the ration in future as their biometrics may not get authenticated because their working conditions will bring dirt on their fingers.  Ration shop owners will have additional reasons to refuse ration as the biometrics may not match. The poor laborer will not go to the UID Authority to complaint that he was denied ration as there will be no paper trail.

Abraham mentioned that over fifty NGOs have come together to oppose the project. He however clarified that there are some NGOs which want the project to be scrapped while there are some which want UIDAI to address certain issues.

Apart from privacy concerns the NGOs have highlighted issues related to data security, lack of feasibility study, no parliamentary or CAG control as some areas that need to be addressed.

Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of UIDAI had earlier in an exclusive interview to Governance Now mentioned that a team within the authority is already working on a UID Bill and the issue will be addressed soon. 

Watch out the video for The Nandan Nilekani interview on www.governancenow.com