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Lobby your MP, MLA and Municipal Council / Panchayat members, trade unions and associations against UID

The NO2UID Campaign is non-political and non-ideological. It affects everyone, rich and poor, influential and marginalised, those in government and those outside it. Most people are ignorant of the evils of a database state. Many imagine that IT could be used for anything and everything. Some think that it would eliminate corruption.

 

People do not know that a database with information about you, about all people, under the control of corrupt politicians and bureaucrats, could be used against people. If the poor could be “Targeted” to provide them with “welfare benefits” using a database, the same database could be used to “target” anyone else for any other purpose.

 

The causes of leakages of welfare funds are not because the beneficiaries are not properly identified. The causes are corruption and inefficiency. Corruption is in decision-making – decisions on eligibility for welfare, in fixing Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for procuring PDS grains, in procurement, in storage, in transportation, in appointing ration shops, NREGS contractors etc.

 

Databases and unique identification could never prevent illegal migrants from entering the country. Only better border policing and control would do that.
How could anyone decide from a person’s fingerprints, whether he / she is an Indian or foreigner or an illegal migrant?,/p>

Politicians, bureaucrats, the rich and powerful in business imagine that they could circumvent any system through bribes and hence, databases and surveillance systems would not affect them. Some would like to use the business opportunity by tapping into government spending on setting up and maintaining such IT systems.

 

Politicians, bureaucrats and businesspersons, who see personal pecuniary and other advantages in such systems, use the fear of terrorism to induce people to accept these methods. People foolishly believe such theories. People do not realise that the underlying assumption is that everyone, other than those in control, is a potential terrorist and needs to be watched.

 

Who will watch the watchers?
We should tell our MPs, MLA, and other elected reps and organized associations the truth about database control. They should know how it would affect them, as much as it affects everyone else.

Should you need any assistance for contacting your local reps, please email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The link here will take you to the Lok Sabha webpage with names, constituency and contact details of all Members of Parliament. Please use this to send appeals to them and engage them to scrap the UID Scheme.

Consumer Rights - Denial by Delay

India passed the Consumer Protection Act in 1986. The Act sought to "promote and protect the rights of consumers. The  

Act mentions six rights, by way of examples. These are the right to be protected, informed, assured, wherever possible, of access to competitive prices, heard, seek redress and to consumer education. The United Nations stipulated eight rights. These are the rights to satisfaction of basic needs, to safety, be informed, choose, be heard, to consumer education and the right to healthy and sustainable environment. The last three from the UN list of rights have been omitted from the Indian Act. 

This apart, the implementation of the Indian law leaves the consumer in the lurch. Under the Act, cases were to decided within three months of receipt of notice by the opposite party. However, most cases drag on for years. The courts function like any civil court. The consumer is at the receiving end of all the usual delaying tactics seen in other courts in India. The principal object of the Act was to provide speedy remedy to consumers. There is neither speed, nor any remedy for consumer ills. Under Regulations framed for consumer forums, 75 to 100 cases were to be disposed off every month. The State Commission is to submit a report on institution and disposal of cases every month to the National Commission. The lack of any accountability is obvious from the fact the cases go well beyond the laid down period for disposal. If the National Commission's oversight were good, they would have known this and acted to remedy the situation. If the number of courts are inadequate to handle the volume of litigation, more courts should be set up. In fact, if cases were speedily disposed off and stringent penalties imposed on those who trample on consumer rights, the number of cases would reduce drastically. As it is, product manufacturers and service providers are able to deal with consumers with impunity.

Typical of the problems faced by consumers are delays and non-provision of service by the construction business to individual consumers who pay huge sums for purchase of flats and homes. Invariably, the purchase if through loans from banks and financial institutions. The interest clock keeps ticking while purchasers wait for delivery of the flats and homes. This imposes a very high burden on the buyers. Yet consumer courts have not been active in disposing cases against builders, who take the buyers for a ride.

Drastic and immediate action is called for to improve the functioning of consumer courts. A few suggestions for this are listed below.

  1. 1. Set up more consumer courts
  2. 2. Appoint judges who understand consumer issues and rights
  3. 3. Do not appoint judges from among those who retired either from the lower judiciary or High Courts. They bring with them the mental baggage of the thinking prevalent in these conventional courts.
  4. 4. Allow consumers to plead and argue their cases. They could be provided with qualified legal assistance for the purpose of making them aware of the legal procedures and interpretation of evidence.
  5. 5. Ensure that cases are disposed within 3 months, as laid down in the Act.
  6. 6. Ensure stringent penalties, including, imprisonment for those who do not comply speedily with the orders of consumer courts.
  7. 7. Penalize and remove judges who do not decide cases within time frames stipulated in the law. 

 

 

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