Life without Aadhar

 There is every indication now that life without the Aadhar number is about to become impossible in India. The government had made the quoting of the 12-digit biometric identifier Aadhar mandatory for old and new bank accounts as well is for fincial transactions of Rs 50,000 and above. The earlier deadline for this was December 31, 2017. This has been extended to March 31, 2018. An official release issued recently in New Delhi says: “It has been decided to notify 31 March, 2018 or six months from the date of commencement of account-based relationship by the client, whichever is later, as the date of submission of the Aadhar number and permanent account number or Form 60 by the clients to the reporting entity.” The decision to extend the deadline was taken after various representations as well as inputs were received from banks. The Centre had informed the Supreme Court last week that it was willing to extend the deadline for the mandatory linking of Aadhar to bank accounts, mutual funds, credit and debit cards, cell phones, domestic gas consumer cards and so on.

The entire business of imposing something like the redundant Aadhar card for all aspects of day-to-day fincial transactions is an additiol source of harassment for Indian citizens. During 70 years of independence and for years before we became free, there was never the need for anything like the Aadhar card. Most democracies all over the world mage quite well without coercive measures like the Aadhar cards and the linking of such cards to all fincial activities. All that the citizens of India need is an identity card that serves all the needs of day-to-day activities including fincial activities. The batch of applications before the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the Centre’s decision to force people to link all fincial activity with the Aadhar card deserve greater indications of support from harassed citizens. 

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Sentinel Assam
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