By Express News Service

BENGALURU: Anupam Saraph is the former IT advisor to Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parriker and an expert in governance and informatics. For a number of years now, he has been fighting the mandatory implementation of the Aadhar in various spheres of the state and citizens’ functioning. Saraph was in the city recently to deliver a talk in the city where he interacted with City Express. His talk on ‘Destroying Banking with Aadhar’ laid bare some basic facts about where the Aadhar is headed in the near future. The insistence of banks on linking accounts to a person’s Aadhar identity, according to him can lead to mass shell accounts and the possibility of India turning into the “new world capital for money laundering.”

He explained how in the earlier days of the UIDAI, the RBI was against the idea of opening bank accounts using only an Aadhar identity. “UIDAI was pressuring RBI for Aadhar to be used as KYC (know your customer) to open accounts. Nowhere in the world is a third party allowed to use the bank details of its customers,” he says. Under pressure finally, RBI conceded that Aadhar would be allowed for small accounts of value not exceeding Rs 2 lakh subjected to auditing adds Saraph. UIDAI, however, insisted that all accounts be allowed to be opened with Aadhar.

Thus, Aadhar allows for the creation of shell accounts especially in the absence of agencies that could authenticate each Aadhar identity. “There is no role entrusted to anybody to certify or authenticate any information with the Aadhar. Even the revenue department says it does not know who certifies such details. There have been cases where stacks of Aadhar cards have been brought by goons and other influential people to banks simply for the purpose of creating bank accounts,” he adds.

He also says there is the possibility of making many ghost accounts using the Aadhar.

In the pre-Aadhar days there would be a manual verification of identity by banks before opening an account. “In the case of Aadhar, around 37 lakh bank accounts have been made without filling a single form,” he adds. The photograph and QR code in an Aadhar card can also be manipulated in a such a way that one person could use the Aadhar details of another, he says.