Reasonable restrictions on Aadhaar will further strengthen it: UIDAI
New Delhi, Sep 26 : Calling it historic and landmark, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar and said the reasonable conditions and restrictions imposed on the private usage of unique identity data would further strengthen it.
UIDAI CEO Ajay Bhushan Pandey said the verdict, which upheld the constitutional validity of the unique identification document albeit with some modifications, was a victory for the organisation as well as the government.
"Aadhaar has come out winning as the champion of the empowerment of people, especially the marginalised sections of the society and also as the key to the welfare schemes delivery of the government that has eradicated the fakes, duplicates and middlemen," he said.
However, some reasonable conditions and restrictions on private usage have been imposed as safeguards that would further strengthen Aadhaar as the unique identity in the service of the people especially the poor, he added.
In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of Aadhaar but restricting it to the disbursement of social benefits and junking its requirement for cell phones and bank accounts.
In a majority judgment, a five-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra held that Aadhaar would be voluntary and not mandatory.
The court struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act which allows private entities to demand Aadhaar to access their services.
In a statement, UIDAI said the Aadhaar Act had withstood the judicial scrutiny and "the purpose of the Act is legitimate".
"Aadhaar as an idea is fully upheld that it does not create a surveillance state and does not violate privacy. The verdict (upholds that) Aadhaar is a tool of empowerment of the marginalised sections of the society.
"The apex court also upheld that the Aadhaar Act passed as a money bill is valid. It has further gone on to say that the Aadhaar Act meets the concept of limited government, good governance, and constitutional trust," the statement said.
UIDAI said the verdict had recognised that Aadhaar "respects human dignity and does not violate privacy" and that it passes the "balancing tests" collecting only minimal data.
"It has been established by the judgment that Aadhaar is not for the state surveillance as profiling is not possible using the minimal data that Aadhaar has. There are sufficient safeguards to disallow any abuse," it said.
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Mathura boat capsize tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13
Mathura (UP)(PTI): With the recovery of two more bodies on Sunday, the death toll in the boat capsize incident in the Yamuna river in Mathura has climbed to 13, officials said on Sunday.
Search for three more missing persons is underway.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suresh Chandra Rawat said renewed search efforts led to the recovery of the body of a college student, identified as Dinki Bansal, near Devraha Baba Ghat and that of a man identified as Rishabh Sharma approximately 3 km away from the accident site.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when a boat carrying over two dozen tourists, primarily from Punjab, hit a floating drum of a pontoon bridge and capsized near Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan.
Most of the victims were from Jagraon and Dugri areas of Ludhiana district.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the district administration and local police were actively engaged in the search for the missing pilgrims.
However, strong currents of the Yamuna river and the significant depth of the water at the ghats are proving a hindrance.
Circle Officer (Mant) Sandeep Singh said the Yamuna river stretch extending from Keshi Ghat to Gokul Barrage has been divided into seven sectors.
The search for the missing individuals will now be conducted within this specific 20-square-km zone. A Station House Officer (SHO) has been designated as the in-charge for each sector.
Acting on the orders of the DIG (Agra Range), seven SHOs will oversee operations across the seven sectors of river Yamuna.
Giving details about the operation, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma, citing NDRF officials, on Saturday had said although the search for the missing persons is currently focused within a 14-km radius from the spot where the boat had capsized, there is a possibility that they may have been swept much further downstream.
SHO of Vrindavan police station Sanjay Pandey said boat operator Pappu was arrested late on Friday night.
He is accused of failing to provide life jackets to passengers before allowing them to board the boat, and operating the boat at high speed. This resulted in the boat losing control and colliding with a pontoon bridge's drum, which led to the accident, officials said.
Police have registered a case and also arrested the contractor, Narayan Sharma, responsible for the repair work on the pontoon bridge.
Rawat said that on Friday evening, police registered a case under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the boatman Pappu (alias Dauji) and Sharma, and subsequently arrested them.
According to the case details, Pappu's boat did not have any safety equipment or provisions whatsoever.
Moreover, despite repeated pleas from pilgrims, Pappu operated the boat at high speed. By the time he realised the danger upon approaching the pontoons of the bridge, it was already too late.
Consequently, after colliding with a pontoon drum, the boat lost control and capsized. It has also come to light that he is among those operators who have not obtained the requisite license to operate a boat.
Sharma was carrying out the work of dismantling and reassembling the pontoon bridge without providing any prior notification.
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