Last week, an enterprising resident welfare association in Ghaziabad organised a registration camp for unique identification (UID) numbers. It found people queuing up till midnight for a week with infants, grandmothers and some with domestic workers in tow.
No one had a clue as to how UID was different from the several other identity documents each of them had been scrupulously accumulating and treasuring. They were initially informed that all they needed to do was get their thumbs and eyes photographed. But it turned out that they also required to carry a proof of address and photo identification. UID is being considered as the government’s magic bullet to beat corruption in every sphere of society. A bigger solution than the Lok Pal, it is the super Lok Pal, says a resident.
No one knows how this is to happen. The enthusiasm of the government to give each citizen an UID is comparable with its lack of enthusiasm to open up the entire bureaucracy down to the constable to scrutiny under the Lok Pal/Lok Ayukta Bill, as proposed by activists led by Anna Hazare.
It did it once through the Right to Information Act. But it refuses to go any further. It wants to restrict it to the deputy secretary and upwards. Besides, it has no plans to have a central Lok Ayukta Bill which would cover state officials.
It is the scrutiny of the officials in the police, food department, transport, health and education departments which would bring relief to the common man.
If crores are looted during the Commonwealth Games, it makes people angry, but not as much as when they are asked to pay Rs 500 for the verification of their address for a passport by a constable.
Recently, the criminal investigation department (CID) and police officials in Ghaziabad’s Indirapuram area arrived for the verification of the address of a journalist for the purpose of an accreditation card to be issued by the Press Information Bureau (PIB). Both parties demanded Rs 500 each. The implication was that a denial would lead the PIB card to an unknown fate. The same happened when the cops and CID officials came to verify the address for the issuance of a passport.
Activists have demanded that a Lok Ayukta Bill be enacted as a Central legislation along with the Lok Pal Bill. Without a Lok Ayukta Bill with strong powers, it would be business as usual for the entities mentioned above.
Says social scientist Ashwini Kumar of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, “It is important that the Lok Pal and Lok Ayukta have powers to take action.” He cites the example of the Bihar government, which recently seized the premises of an official accused of corruption and turned it into a school. It was, however, done after an approval was taken from the home ministry, as the official concerned was under the respective ministry. Citing the model of the Election Commission, which can marshal its resources when it wants, he says while the activists are looking for a radical interpretation of the Constitution, the government is focusing on centralised corruption. Instead of opening up the entire officialdom to scrutiny, it wants to rely on technological solutions such as UID for dealing with decentralised corruption. But, can 300 million people be protected from corruption with just a UID number, he asks.
Meanwhile, some residents queuing up for UID launched into arguments against the non-inclusion of the prime minister under Lok Pal, and began dissecting every scam that was in the news lately. Amid the heat, it is your turn for photographing your iris and your thumbs… under the UPA’s scheme for reaching out to the last man/woman on this land.
