Biometric authentication to benefit farmers: Centre - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

Biometric authentication to benefit farmers: Centre.

It will aid in tracking end use beneficiary: Piyush Goyal.

In a bid to cut out middleman and ensure greater transparency in the procurement of farm produce, the Centre is encouraging States to deploy biometric authentication of farmers.

The practice, already adopted in Uttar Pradesh and set to be rolled out in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha this year, will aid in tracking the end use beneficiary, Food Minister Piyush Goyal said at a press conference on Thursday.

Online payments

The initiative comes at a time when farmers are agitating for a legal guarantee that all their crops will be procured at a minimum support price (MSP), and demanding the repeal of three farm reform laws that they believe will weaken the current system of procurement at State-run markets. In States such as Punjab and Haryana, where the agitation has been strongest, middlemen who act as commission agents or arhitiyas are a key part of the procurement process at these mandis.

The Centre had already taken steps to roll out online payments to farmers who sell their produce to the government, said Food Ministry Additional Secretary Edwin Kulbhushan Majhi. It had directed the State governments of Haryana and Punjab to ensure payments in e-mode from the upcoming season, and was expecting all States to follow suit this year.

“We would like all payments released by the Central government to farmers, that we are able to track them online. There should not be any intermediaries, farmers should not be given cheques to be encashed. The money should go directly into the farmers’ accounts,” said Mr. Majhi.

Faster process

The next step was the biometric authentication scheme that U.P. had already rolled out. “The entire process of procurement has to be made faster. Once you have data of farmers available, and once they are bio-authenticated, the entire details are digitally available to the procurement machinery, the kind of crop he’s cultivating, the kind of landholding he has, all the details are available,” said Mr. Majhi.

This initiative reduced the need for extensive paperwork, prevented leakages and speeded up the process of procurement, with payment settlement being completed within 72 hours, he said, adding efficiency and greater cost-effectiveness to the system.

“The other advantage is that the farmer gets a receipt for his goods, showing the quantity and the MSP price, so nobody can cheat the farmer. He gets the full fair price,” said Mr. Goyal. He did not respond to a query whether bio authentication would be mandatory for farmers to participate in the procurement process.

“States are welcoming it, it is easier for the farmer, the farmer doesn’t have to depend on the middleman or the arhitiyas,” added Mr. Majhi.

With regard to the Economic Survey’s recommendation for a hike in the subsidised prices of rice and wheat sold at ration shops, Mr. Goyal said it was not under consideration at the moment. “At present, there is no such proposal in the Ministry to increase the prices of products given under the [National] Food Security Act. It continues to be ₹3, ₹2 and ₹1 for rice, wheat and coarse grain [respectively],” he said.

The Economic Survey had urged that prices be hiked in order to reduce the burgeoning food subsidy bill. (Source: The Hindu)

The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Biometric authentication to benefit farmers: Centre.

Aadhaar Act validating collection of biometric 'badly drafted': SC - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis

Aadhaar Act validating collection of biometric 'badly drafted': SC.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that the provision of Aadhaar Act that seeks to validate the data collected from 2009 to 2016 when the statute was enacted was "badly drafted" and it could not be read to mean waiving of fundamental rights of the people.

The five judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra told Attorney General K.K. Venugopal that the supposed deemed consent for parting with biometric data can't be stretched to mean waiving of fundamental rights to privacy of the people.
Other judges on the constitution bench are Justice A.K. Sikri, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Ashok Bhushan.
The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, that was enacted in 2016 seeks to validate the collection of biometric and demographic Adata of the people from 2009 till law came into existence in 2016 on the strength of administrative instructions.
Section 59 says: "Anything done or any action taken by the Central Government under the Resolution of the Government of India, Planning Commission bearing notification number A-43011/02/2009-Admin. I, dated the 28th January, 2009, or by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology under the Cabinet Secretariat Notification bearing notification number S.O. 2492(E), dated the 12th September, 2015, as the case may be, shall be deemed to have been validly done or taken under this Act."
Unimpressed by the argument advanced by the Attorney General, Chief Justice Misra said: "You have said that it was voluntary and with minimal invasion. We can't hold that the fundamental rights can be waived or compromised" by stretching the deemed consent to that extent.
The court's observation as Venugopal sought to defend the data collected from 2009 to 2016 on the strength of administrative orders and without obtaining the consent of the people on the collection and storage of their biometric and demographic data.
The Attorney General said that people gave their biometric data voluntarily and at that point of time, it did not violate the privacy as right to privacy was not a fundamental right.
Defending the insertion of Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act that mandates the linking of PAN number with Aadhaar, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the said provision advanced the "legitimate interest of the State, it did not suffer from any lack of proportionality and was not arbitrary".
He said that the provision was introduced to eliminate the duplicate PANs from the system, which he said were being used for illegal transactions.
Mehta asserted that by linking Aadhaar with PAN helped in curbing the tax evasion, prevention, accumulation and circulation of black money and money laundering including preventing terror financing - which he described as legitimate state interest.
The top court's nine judge constitution bench had on August 24, 2017 while holding that right to privacy was fundamental, which is a intrinsic and core feature of life and personal liberty, had said that yet state can for legitimate reasons such as protecting national security, preventing and investigating crime could collect and store data about people.
"Apart from national security, the state may have justifiable reasons for the collection and storage of data", the majority judgment by Justice Chandrachud had said: "In a social welfare state, the government embarks upon programmes which provide benefits to impoverished and marginalised sections of society."
He had however calling for a robust data protection regime, which "requires a careful and sensitive balance between individual interests and legitimate concerns of the state".
The constitution bench is hearing a batch of petitions by former Karnataka High Court Judge K.S. Puttuswamy, Magsaysay awardee Shanta Sinha, feminist researcher Kalyani Sen Menon, social activist Aruna Roy, Nikhil De, Nachiket Udupa and others challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme on the touchstone of the fundamental right to privacy.
Mehta will continue with his arguments on Wednesday. (Source: The Business Standard)


The above Article can also be read using the link below:

Aadhaar Act validating collection of biometric 'badly drafted': SC.