Campaign to give up Aadhaar numbers in Meghalaya

Shillong: Nearly 300 people in Meghalaya have joined a campaign to give up their Aadhaar cards, alleging that the 12-digit identification number could lead to non-indigenous people getting voting rights.

The Aadhaar enrolment process has faced stiff resistance in the north-eastern state ever since registrations began in June this year, with the influential Khasi Students Union (KSU) and churches opposing it on grounds of privacy infringement besides the issue of voting rights for non-natives.

Altogether, 286 people have submitted letters to the Meghalaya People Committee on Aadhaar (MPCA) on the third day of the campaign, requesting deletion of their Aadhaar numbers from the Unique Identification Authority of India’s database.

“The campaign is on and will conclude on November 3. We hope to collect enough letters before we could move the authorities concerned for necessary deletion,” MPCA secretary Auguster Jyrwa said.

MPCA is an umbrella organisation under the KSU and the Thma u Rangli u Juli (TUR), a progressive people’s group. The students union comprises about 5,000 people who have voluntarily not registered for Aadhaar.

The Meghalaya People Committee on Aadhaar is working on a common centre for people across the state to receive the letters from those who want their Aadhaar details to be removed from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) database, Jyrwa said.

Angela Rangad, MPCA member and convener of TUR, said, “There are enough doubts that the Aadhaar number will be misused in surveillance and control by the powers that be. We have to be extra careful before we commit ourselves to the unknown”.

Over 4.6 lakh people in Meghalaya have Aadhaar numbers, and the registration process for new ones is underway, a UIDAI official told PTI.

“Till date, 4.63 lakh of the 3.2 million people (about 14 per cent) in the state have enrolled for Aadhaar,” the official said.