On 11/25/2011 12:16 PM, jtd@mtnl.net.in wrote:
The amounts of money in petty corruption on the last mile, is dwarfed by several orders of magnitude by corruption higher up the disbursement chain. This happens because the power heirachy is set to keep control at the top, with a miniscule minority and is the root cause of corruption. ID schemes like the UID reinforce this structure and add additional dangerous elements for tracking and collecting infomation illicitly. The Mumbai police have been involved in illegal surveillance and extortion. Such tactics were (and are) used during the emergency to target political opponents.
When the voter ID cards were made, we had to visit the designated centers and get our photograph taken on the spot. Keeping aside the bad quality of the images and the spelling mistakes in names, if the UID system IDs are taken in a proper planned manner in proper well equipped centers that the chances of wrong doing will be minimum. Every system has its risks and chances of cheating but we have to select the one that has the minimum chances of it and benefits are maximum. Electronic meters can be tampered with but they are still welcome. Wireless communication can be compromised but we cannot do without it.