Indian Railways is interested in using the Unique ID Authority of India database in key areas, including ticketing. And UIDAI Chairman is very happy about it.
OMG! there should be some limit to self-justification. In their anxiety to prove that UID can be used productively, the UIDAI authority is willing to allow access to its database to one of the most scam infested organisation of India.
Even a school boy knows about the scam in ticketing, going on for donkey’s years, where fictitious names are used to book tickets in advance by touts and then sold at premium to passengers. Now these touts have become tech-savvy; they use special software with database (database! hey, isn’t it what we are talking about?) to book tickets within minutes of the opening of ticketing counter.
Some even suggest that touts book tickets in collusion with the Railway software staff couple of minutes in advance of the opening of the counter.
And the fraud in the IR system is not at just junior or even middle management. It appears that even the top brass are involved in scams. The latest is RRB exam scam where the Chairman of Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai and his cohorts including his son are alleged to have taken Rs. 350,000/- (~$7,500) per person and leaked the question paper of the upcoming recruitment exams – not from one or two guys, but at least 444 of potential recruits.
And Nandan Nilakeni is willing to hand over the database to a nest of such crooks.
What’ll happen you ask?
A lot say I.
Next time another David Coleman Headley comes calling, he doesn’t have to use his name to travel around. Just get the nearest railway tout to select a suitable UID for him. Thus when one is sitting at home and blogging away, a Hedley uses the blogger’s UID to travel from Mumbai to Delhi and set off a *scare*. And the police are going to go chasing after the blogger.
I know that if Nandu boy ever reads this, he’s going to rear up on his hind legs and howl “Can’t happen”. Remember the Dubai false passport killings in January, anyone?
>:->
OMG! there should be some limit to self-justification. In their anxiety to prove that UID can be used productively, the UIDAI authority is willing to allow access to its database to one of the most scam infested organisation of India.
Even a school boy knows about the scam in ticketing, going on for donkey’s years, where fictitious names are used to book tickets in advance by touts and then sold at premium to passengers. Now these touts have become tech-savvy; they use special software with database (database! hey, isn’t it what we are talking about?) to book tickets within minutes of the opening of ticketing counter.
Some even suggest that touts book tickets in collusion with the Railway software staff couple of minutes in advance of the opening of the counter.
And the fraud in the IR system is not at just junior or even middle management. It appears that even the top brass are involved in scams. The latest is RRB exam scam where the Chairman of Railway Recruitment Board, Mumbai and his cohorts including his son are alleged to have taken Rs. 350,000/- (~$7,500) per person and leaked the question paper of the upcoming recruitment exams – not from one or two guys, but at least 444 of potential recruits.
And Nandan Nilakeni is willing to hand over the database to a nest of such crooks.
What’ll happen you ask?
A lot say I.
Next time another David Coleman Headley comes calling, he doesn’t have to use his name to travel around. Just get the nearest railway tout to select a suitable UID for him. Thus when one is sitting at home and blogging away, a Hedley uses the blogger’s UID to travel from Mumbai to Delhi and set off a *scare*. And the police are going to go chasing after the blogger.
I know that if Nandu boy ever reads this, he’s going to rear up on his hind legs and howl “Can’t happen”. Remember the Dubai false passport killings in January, anyone?
>:->
Its going to be challenging. It all depends on how they plan to implement this. There needs to be sufficient adoption of the UIDs before they start looking at how to use it. Else it will die before even it starts
ReplyDeleteAgreed, but the question is privacy. And in India, it is the implementation that sucks, not the idea or the rules.
ReplyDelete