Representatives from various organisations point out PM’s claims not consistent with responses to RTI queries

Various organisations came together in the city on Tuesday to raise concerns over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim of Aadhaar being beneficial for various welfare programmes and schemes.

Representatives of Satark Nagrik Sangathan (SNS), Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and Right to Food Campaign were present at the meet held at the Delhi Press Club.

Referring to the PM’s statement in the Lok Sabha, where he stated that the use of Aadhaar and technology led to the discovery of over four crore ‘bogus’ ration cards, those at the meet claimed that the government has been unable to provide evidence for the same.

Speaking about the unsatisfactory responses to RTIs filed by her, Anjali Bharadwaj — who is associated with SNS and the Right to Food Campaign — said, “The file on the Ministry website is not related to the statement of the PM... it does not state that the cards w ere found to be bogus due to technology or Aadhaar. Also, the figures in the file don’t match with the figures stated by the Prime Minister.”

Fake cards

Citing recent media reports which stated that around one crore fake job cards had been found in the process of cleaning up by seeding with Aadhaar, the representatives said an RTI response showed that the deletions were mostly due to other factors like change in address, mistakes on job cards and so on.

Referring to surveys done on the ground, Reetika Khera, professor at IIT-Delhi, said, “Aadhaar is not really reducing corruption. Its aim to remove the middlemen has not been fruitful. Rather, in Jharkhand, we have seen how Aadhaar has actually created its own army of middlemen extracting money out of the poor.”