http://www.merinews.com/article/leaked-documents-says-uid-to-locate-illegal-migrants/15789030.shtml
LAUNCHED THIS February, the identification project UID, was taken up to enfranchise disadvantaged sections of India's poor. However, if a series of leaked documents from an insider are to be believed, it is in fact, a manner to keep track of the country's citizens. Primarily, its functions, as per these documents, is to work in accordance with NDA's 2003 resolve to identify illegal migrants for deportation, using biometric technology of retinal iris scans. The UPA government has revived the scheme after the 26/11 terrorist attacks in Mumbai and a Supreme Court decision on the subject. The documents admits that the UIDAI requires to be constituted in law and interestingly it will "own and manage" the database of every Indian resident under a public private partnership model. The physical ownership, location and control of the computer servers on which the database would be stored would be a secret. The leaked documents also reveal that the UIDAI will be the underpinning of the Ministry of Home's own National Citizenship Identification Project which is expected to be complete with the compilation of the National Population Register 2011 after the upcoming 2010 census. The IAS officer, who leaked these documents says, he has no regrets for what he did and claims he has applied for whistleblower status. . The UIDAI, meanwhile, has also been involved in a tiff with RTI activists, who have attempted to use the transparency law to get access to the records maintained by the project. In a hearing last week, before the Central Information Commission, the UIDAI's mission director, Ram Sewak Sharma, submitted that the UIDAI was not operational and was only at the proposal stage. He said so, it is not possible at present for the body to deal with requests for information. UIDAI Chairman Nandan Nilekani, while addressing a session in Patna, Bihar of state police officers on Friday, had clarified that UID cards to be issued next year, would be a powerful tool to identify and neutralise enemies in India's internal war against the Maoist guerillas. Nilekani denied, however, that these cards would be used by government forces to create "liberated zones" as US occupation forces in Afghanistan propose to do.
