As the debate over privacy and Aadhaar rages across the country, the
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) courted controversy of its own
on Monday by putting out personal details of thousands of pourakarmikas
on its website. The information was restricted from public access only
by Monday evening after a push from the government.

The BBMP put
out details such as Aadhaar, ESIC and Provident Fund numbers, date of
joining and type of employment along with the pourakarmikas photographs.
They said it was done in an effort to bring in transparency over the
employment of pourakarmikas in the city and admitted that it was an
“oversight.”

According to sources, the BBMP officials were
intimated by Monday afternoon that publishing Aadhaar details was in
violation of Aadhaar Act, 2016, which expressly prohibits the same. By
evening, the details were removed from public access.

Terming the updating of Aadhaar numbers of pourakarmikas as ‘unnecessary’, Mythri K., of Alternative Law Forum, told
The Hindu
that the BBMP’s effort to put up these details has revealed that
problems such as duplication of names, fake names and the names not
matching with the ground reality, exist. She said details of 32,000
pourakarmikas in 198 wards had been published on the BBMP website.

Office memorandum

Incidentally,
the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology e-Governance
group, in an office memorandum on March 25, asked all chief secretaries
of the State and IT secretaries not to publish identity information such
as Aadhaar number as it is in clear contravention of the provisions of
Aadhaar (Targeted delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits
and Services) Act 2016. It specified sections 29(2), 29(3) and 29(4)
that constitute an offence under sections 37, 40 and 41, punishable with
imprisonment of upto three years.

The memorandum came in the
light of personal identity or information of residents, including
Aadhaar numbers and demographic information collected by various
ministries, departments in administration of various welfare schemes,
reportedly being published online and made easily accessible on an
online search.

One month

Meanwhile,
acknowledging that the publishing of Aadhaar details had been an
“oversight” on their part, BBMP Commissioner Manjunath N. Prasad said
the details had been up on the website for about a month now. “There had
been many allegations that the number of pourakarmikas with the BBMP
was inflated. So, their names and other details were put up on the site
as a step to increase transparency.” Once this came to his notice on
Monday, the details were taken off the website. “The Aadhar details will
be removed and rest of the information will be put up after that,” he
added.

Despite the main link from the website being removed,
another link on the website still had details available online. The
Commissioner said that he would ensure that the link would be made
accessible only to officials.

The UIDAI
has also washed its hands of the matter, saying it is the government
agency that puts out the details that is responsible. Scores of details
have been leaked in this manner. Even a layman can access details
through a Google search. This adds to the vast amount of details already
leaked online.

Shijil

Free Software Movement, Karnataka