New Delhi April 10 (IANS) Emphasising that Aadhaar is completely safe secure and robust IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday slammed the opposition for trying to paint it as a tragedy to the country.
Replying to a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha on Aadhaars implementation and implications he sought to allay the opposition s fears that biometric and demographic data collected for Aadhaar could be leaked and misused.
I want to dispel all misconceptions (about Aadhaar). Aadhaar is robust safe secure and totally accountable Prasad said.
He also said that the world is appreciating it and something which is giving result needs to be respected.
Members have raised the issue of privacy. Are we invading privacy under Aadhaar law? No. A categorical no Prasad said.
He said the biometric and demographic data collected by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to give a unique identification number to a citizen was completely safe and there were enough safeguards against the misuse of this data.
The policy is minimum information no profiling . For instance if a bank asks for the information about a potential customer it would be provided just the limited information for its consumption he noted adding that there was robust legal mechanism to check any attempt to pry into the personal details of a person.
In the last six months we have blacklisted 32 000 operators he said.
Rebutting opposition s charges point by point the Minister said that Supreme Court did not put stay on Aadhaar being linked to many things.
We are the law-making authority. We are accountable to the people of the country he said adding that Parliament has come up with a law -- the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies Benefits and Services) Act 2016 -- in this regard.
When the law is there the law will hold the field he said clarifying that in case anything goes wrong in relation to Aadhaar there is a law to deal with it.
Answering Congress charge that the Bharatiya Janata Party and its leaders including current Prime Minister Narendra Modi when in opposition had opposed the idea of Aadhaar Prasad said that BJP was against it as personal information of the people was being collected in absence of any law in relation to it.
He also assured the House that no poor will be denied benefits of various subsidies and welfare schemes or work for want of Aadhaar.
--IANS
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Aadhaar is safe, secure, says Prasad (Lead)
