V S Achuthanandan voices misgivings about UID project

Economic Times:  THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: CPI(M) veteran V S Achuthanandan today expressed misgivings about the UID scheme launched by the Centre "without proper debate" in Parliament and alleged that the true intention behind the programme was to help IT firms hit by the global downturn.

The Centre was moving ahead with the Unique Identification Number (UID) campaign without bothering about its implications or taking into account the experiences of countries which had abandoned it mid-way after realising the dangers involved, Achuthanandnan, who is Kerala Opposition Leader, said.

The UID programme envisaged collection of bio-metric details of each citizen,without factoring in the security implications or invasion of privacy. Countries like the United Kingdom and Philippines had abandoned the project mid-way after realising the latent dangers,he said.