Parivar Pehchan Bill passed amid privacy concerns
CHANDIGARH: Congress MLAs on Friday cited privacy concerns while opposing the enactment of Haryana Parivar Pehchan Bill, a legislation aimed at providing a unique identifier number to each family in the state for determination of eligibility for any scheme, service, subsidy or benefit provided by the state government. The Bill was, however, passed by the state assembly.
Congress MLA Kiran Choudhry said the proposed legislation will enable the government of the day to misuse citizens’ data. “Why is this Bill being pushed in a haste. It is in violation of Supreme Court orders in KS Puttaswamy case and will be challenged in a court of law,” she said. The apex court, in its order, had said that every citizen has a fundamental right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution. “The right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by part III of the Constitution,” the SC order said.
Insisting that the Bill be withdrawn, Choudhry said that data collection should have been done by an independent authority and state assembly should be the custodian of the data.
Leader of the opposition, Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that the proposed legislation was not in the interest of democratic rights of citizens and should be withdrawn. Congress MLA from Jhajjar, Geeta Bhukkal questioned the need for such a piece of legislation. “Why do we need a family identity card when we already have multiple identity cards like Aadhar card and PAN. I would also like to know whether this I mandatory or voluntary,” said Bhukkal.
Defending the Haryana Parivar Pehchan Bill, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said that Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) was not mandatory but voluntary. Dismissing privacy concerns, Khattar said that privacy issues are for wealthy people who do not want to share their income and wealth.
“And if there is any breach of data, we will punish the perpetrators,” he said. Khattar said that government already has citizens’ data in its land records database, the public distribution system database and students’ database. “We are just consolidating it and bringing it under an umbrella,” he said.
“No one has built a system for the benefit of the last person in the queue. Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) has been formulated to deliver the benefits of the schemes till the last person. The government has been working on it for the last three years and 64 lakh families have been registered in the PPP. Anyone who wants to take advantage of government service should have some document of being a resident of Haryana.
As per the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill, a Parivar Pehchan Authority is proposed to be established for development of the policy, procedure, technology and systems for generating and issuing of Parivar Pehchan number to families residing in Haryana. The Authority shall collect, update, manage and maintain information of the family and its members in the form of specified data fields in the Family Information Data Repository and develop and implement mechanisms, processes and systems for authenticating or verifying such information. It shall provide verified and authenticated data based on the Parivar Pehchan number to all government departments, government agencies and local authorities for identification of beneficiaries or determination of eligibility or provision or implementation of any scheme, service, benefit or subsidy. It shall also maintain the security and confidentiality of data and information held by it in the Family Information Data Repository.
Parivar Pehchan identifier can enable the proactive delivery without the beneficiary or recipient having to visit any government office.
It will minimise the burden on production of documents and enable faceless and nameless anytime and anywhere delivery of schemes, services, subsidies and benefits.
THE OPPOSITION MEMBERS SAY THE PROPOSED LEGISLATION WILL ENABLE THE GOVERNMENT OF TO MISUSE CITIZENS’ DATA; QUESTION HASTE IN PASSING BILL