Citizen No.473879621? (June 27) takes a very practical and realistic view about the Unique Identification Card (UIC) project assigned to Nandan Nilekani. While the competence of Nilekani is unquestioned, the experience with the existing Permanent Account Number (PAN) has been very unsatisfactory and it has not been able to check and unearth black money. An estimated 15 lakh PAN cards out of 4 crore cards are suspected to be duplicate. In the recent elections, many crorepati candidates did not have PAN cards and political parties never bothered to ensure that their candidates furnished PAN card details.
The project will, undoubtedly, be a success, but there is considerable scepticisim over what use will be made of the data that will be stored on the card. The pathetic enforcement of our laws is evident from the fact that for opening a bank account, a citizen has to give his/her PAN card details but this does not apply to politicians who are filling nominations for contesting election.
M M Gurbaxani. Bangalore
