Meghalaya, MPC launches ‘Opt out of Aadhaar’ campaign in Shillong #Goodnews

  With Aadhaar being made compulsory and mandatory for availing government schemes, linking it with bank accounts and Pan cards, demands and campaigns to opt out of Aadhaar are slowing picking pace in various places in the country including Northeast India.

Joining the anti-Aadhaar chorus, the Meghalaya People Committee (MPC) On Aadhaar have decided to launch an “Opt Out Campaign” to allow people of the State to opt out of Aadhaar. In this regard, the committee organised a public meeting to clarify on the various issues relating to the Aadhaar number at the Khasi National Dorbar Hall today.

It may be mentioned that the same issue was also raised in Nagaland whereby insurgent outfit — NSCN (K) resolved to “ban enforcement of aadhar in Naga inhabited territories with immediate effect.”

“The government should not force people to enroll for the Aadhaar number and it should allow the people to take a call by themselves if they want to be enrolled,” MPC member Rev K Pyrtuh said.

Rev Pyrtuh maintained that the people who have already register for the Aadhaar number can participate in the campaign by writing a letter asking for the deletion of their names from the UIDAI data base.

“The people can submit their letter to the KSU office at Jaiaw on October from 11 am to 3 pm. We are likely to submit these letters to the Unique Identification Authority of India,” Pyrtuh said.

Meanwhile, he informed that they are also planning to mobilise the MLAs to urge upon the State Government on the need to revisit on the enrollment of Aadhaar. “We require the support of the MLAs to pressurise the State Government on the need to revisit on enrollment of Aaadhar in the State,” Pyrtuh said.

He also said that the Supreme Court is expected to come up with final ruling on Aadhaar in November. “Everything would be clear once the Supreme Court ruling gives its ruling,” Rev Pyrtuh said.

Rev Pyrtuh also said that they are planning to file a contempt petition against the departments for insisting on Aadhaar number even after the Supreme Court had passed an interim order on the matter.

While referring to the ruling of the apex court on the “Right to Privacy”, he said that in a landmark decision, the Supreme Court on August 24, 2017 had unanimously ruled that the right to privacy was a fundamental right under the Constitution.

It may be mentioned that a nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar ruled that “right to privacy is an intrinsic part of Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 and entire Part III of the Constitution“.

Rev Pyrtuh said that the ruling on the highly contentious issue was to deal with a batch of petitions challenging the Centre’s move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes.

The others members of MPC spoke on various issues relating to the Aadhaar number including its concept,  implementation  –  legality  and  constitutionality, problems  and  ambiguity, Supreme  Court  Interim  Order, litigations  against  Aadhaar  and  its  implementation, Supreme  Court’s  9  Judges’  Constitutional   Bench  Ruling  on Right  to  Privacy, Opt  Out  Campaign and pending  final  ruling  on  Aadhaar.

https://thenortheasttoday.com/meghalaya-mpo-launches-opt-out-of-aadhaar-campaign-in-shillong/