French consulate exposes passport racket in State

May 20, 2013, The Hindu.

During routing scrutiny of visa applications in Puducherry

A scrutiny of visa applications at the French Consulate in Puducherry has led to the detection of fake passport racket in Tamil Nadu.

During a routine scrutiny of visa applications a few weeks ago, the consulate authorities found certain discrepancies in 14 passports and referred the applications to the Regional Passport Office here. Further investigation revealed that the passports were either tampered with or obtained by fake documents, sources in the intelligence agencies said on Sunday.

“These passports were issued through the district passport cells and the bona fides of applicants were verified through the local police. We have requested the Puducherry police to register a case and investigate. At least 130 passports obtained illegally have been seized...we have launched a probe in association with the Bureau of Immigration,” Regional Passport Officer C. Senthil Pandian told The Hindu.

The Regional Passport Centre in Chennai has introduced enhanced security features on new passports that will make it difficult to misuse. 

“The modes operandi of suspects involved in the fake passport racket is to replace some pages and photographs in genuine passports. We have information that a majority of those who misused the passports were Sri Lankan nationals,” he said.

Meanwhile, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said using biometry in visa and passport processing was the only foolproof mechanism to ascertain the identity of genuine holders. 

During the India-Pakistan cricket match held in Chennai, biometric visas were issued to about 80 Pakistanis by the Indian mission in Islamabad and verified by immigration officials at the Chennai international airport. 

“Identifying a passport holder based on the photograph in the database is sometimes difficult as the photo could have been taken many years ago. We are in the process of acquiring equipment for biometric verification of visas and passports. The system will first be introduced to foreign nationals as part of the Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Tracking (IVFRT) project,” a senior MEA official said.

Sources in the ‘Q’ Branch CID, which is also investigating the fake passport case, said many Sri Lankan nationals were involved, and Look Out Circulars have been issued to all international airports in the country to apprehend them if they visited India. 

New Indian passports ‘rejected’ by Saudi authorities

Arab News , Jeddah, May 20: 

Several hundreds of Indian expatriates are facing problems with newly issued passports by Indian diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi authorities are not accepting the newly designed passport, saying they have not received any official information on modification.

Passport holders are legal residents of the Kingdom with valid residency permits who have approached Passport Department (Jawazat) to transfer data from their old passports to their new ones, commonly known as “naql maalumat.”

In the old passport, the passport holder's photo was placed on the second page, whereas the newly issued passports have photos placed on the third page.

Indian expatriates have approached the Indian Consulate and have obtained a letter confirming the validity of the new passport, but Saudi officials are insisting on receiving confirmation of these changes through the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Yesterday, the Saudi passport office in Jeddah refused to update approximately 200 Indian passports for this reason.

Expatriates rushed to the consular service's outsourcing agency and have lodged a formal complaint.

Long queues in passport offices may soon be passe as MEA plans to launch online payment facility post Budget

Major passport racket busted

S. Vijay Kumar,  

CHENNAI,  

May 17, 2013.

In a major breakthrough, the ‘Q’ Branch CID of the Tamil Nadu police has unearthed a massive fake passport racket across the State. 

Eleven persons have been arrested and special teams are on the lookout for more suspects, including some police and revenue department officials, sources in the intelligence agencies said on Thursday. 

After registering cases involving fake passports in Chennai, Nagapattinam and Pudukottai in recent weeks, police launched an investigation to uncover the entire racket. Based on specific inputs, Meeran of Triplicane here, alleged to be the prime suspect, was arrested. 

On his confession, 10 others, including a police official of Tiruvarur district, were apprehended. “So far, we have seized 130 fake passports. Hundreds of such passports were issued to people who flew to Australia, Canada, United States and others countries in recent months. There is no record of these people returning. Perhaps, they have settled there or migrated to other countries,” a senior police official told The Hindu. 

Modus operandi

Investigation revealed that the racketeers operated with the assistance of some government officials. They prepared passports in three ways: getting genuine passports using fake documents, replacing pages/photographs from genuine passports with fake ones and fabricating passports. 

Going by the database seized from the suspects, investigators believe that hundreds of such fake passports were used over the years. “Taking the data into account, we are sending Look Out Circulars (LOC) to all international airports in the country through the Bureau of Immigration. Some persons who went abroad using these fake passports and visited India in recent days were picked up,” the official said. 

The way people with fake passports sneaked out of the country has a striking similarity with the recent Hollywood blockbuster Argo. In the 2012 film that depicts a true story, Ben Affleck, who plays the lead role as a secret service agent, floats a fake film production company and goes to Teheran on the pretext of making a film. He rescues US diplomats hiding in the house of the Canadian Ambassador during the Iran revolution. 

“The suspects went in groups to foreign countries saying they were part of a film production unit. While some came back, many others either stayed or migrated to other countries from there. Film-making and ‘star night’ events abroad were excuses to leave the country in groups,” the investigator said. Steps were being taken to alert Indian missions in countries where people with fake passports are staying. “We are looking for many others involved in the racket,” the official said and added that investigation so far had not indicated the involvement of any banned organisation or any extremist elements.

People Benefiting from System Leakages Will Oppose UID: RS Sharma

by Udit Misra 

 

RS Sharma talks to Forbes India about his tenure as the director general and mission director of the UIDAI and his vision as the new chief secretary of Jharkhand.

 

Image: Amit Verma

Ram Sewak Sharma
Age: 57
Designation: Chief secretary, Government of Jharkhand
Education: Masters in mathematics, IIT Kanpur; masters in computer science, University of California
Career: Indian Administrative Service (1978 batch)
Hobbies: Photography; reading technical books, especially on programming

Q Does it worry you that even though you might have set the nuts and bolts of UID correctly, there could be other governance issues due to which UID-enabled schemes may still not work?
A. Yes, you are right. It does worry me. I completely agree that ultimately these tools have to be used by humans in a political system and if you have a lot of vested interests there, and a lot of fellows who are [adversely] affected by that [UID], then they will either blame the tool or even destroy it.

Q Now that you have quit the UIDAI, how do you look at those who criticised UID? Do you think they were justified to some extent?
A. There are two broad sources of criticism for UID: One, a lot of people were worried about the privacy of personal data and suspected that UID can be used for surveillance; the other group was that of NGOs working with marginalised people, and they felt UID was becoming a tool for exclusion. For example, a manual labourer may not be able to give valid thumbprints and fail to get minimum wages under NREGA.

There is a third group, which has not yet come into the picture: It comprises people who benefitted from the leakages in the system, like bogus ration cards. Once the actual transfers start, the economy of leakages will oppose UID in a big way.

For the first group, we have very cogent arguments since we are not collecting any confidential information except biometrics. That, too, is secure and we do not allow it to be downloaded. On the exclusion front, we have maintained that we will manage the 1 percent or 2 percent exceptions who fail to receive benefits.

Q  You are now the chief secretary of Jharkhand, which is often labelled as one of the worst-governed states in India. How do you look forward to your tenure?
A. One of the problems of governance has been that we have not built systems over the years. So, we tackle problems in an ad hoc manner; it’s more like firefighting all the time without really contributing much. Suppose we have 50,000 teachers in the state, and if I don’t maintain their promotions, salaries, etc, there is going to be a lot of grievances and these fellows are going to file writs in the high court and our fellows will just be responding to those writs and contempt cases.

So, I told my officers, you can continue with this firefighting drill or you should think long term and build systems. And I believe, by and large politicians don’t resent you if you try to improve systems. And that is the only way we can improve governance in the long term. The other thing is to be responsive and responsible at the ground level, otherwise we would have problems like Left-wing extremism. Our delivery systems should be transparent and non-discretionary.

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/exit-interview/people-benefiting-from-system-leakages-will-oppose-uid-rs-sharma/35071/0?id=35071&pg=0#ixzz2TMYlSysG
 

 

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AADHAR: Union Cabinet of Ignorance!

January 31, 2013 Rediff.com
A Correspondent in New Delhi
 
Union Cabinet ministers were confused about AADHAR when they met on Thursday. A startling report.

Believe it or not, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's  Cabinet is unable to arrive at a consensus on the exact identity of AADHAAR -- the Unique Identification Number, UID.

Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram  thinks it is 'just a number'. He is correct. But Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar , Railway Minister Pawan Bansal and other ministers say: 'It is a card.'

The Union Cabinet met on Thursday and, reportedly, displayed a sensational lack of knowledge about its own ideas, plans and its execution. The question was, probably, worth Rs 5,500 crore/Rs 55 billion.

When the Cabinet met on the issue of harmonising the AADHAAR and National Population Register exercise and the need for a Resident Identity Card, an unbelievable situation arose.

The country's most powerful people, sitting on both sides of Dr Singh, at the high table of power, could not decide if AADHAAR is a card or merely a number and as a result the Cabinet could not approve the budget needed to take the issue further.

During the debate on the pros and cons of a resident ID card in the Cabinet, even Dr Singh was moved to ask, "Do we really need it?"

So much confusion arose among the mighty men that the Union Cabinet had to send the issue to a Group of Ministers to sort it out.

It was surprising for many present to see that a cerebral political entity and a trained lawyer like Chidambaram did not know that many of his colleagues have gone through the biometric exercise and received a card that they call Aadhaar.Chidambaram was, reportedly, taken by surprise when so many ministers told him that they had got 'the card.'

He insisted that AADHAAR is merely a number and not an ID card, says a source privy to the discussions.

At one point, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh butted in to say that there was no need of a 'card' to establish a resident of India's  identity because citizens can store the 'identify number' on their mobile telephones.

Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily  was provoked by Ramesh's remark. He told Ramesh that he (Moily) is unable to handle his own mobile phone so how could he expects villagers to use mobile phones to show their identification numbers. Ramesh meekly quoted the millions of mobile connections in use in India.

The wise men of India are confused because the brand name of the Unique Identification Number project is Aadhaar. At same time the government has initiated the creation of the National Population Register by collecting specific information from all residents in the country during the house listing and housing census phase of Census 2011 from April 2010 to September 2010, according to the NPR Web site.

NPR data is handdled by the Union home ministry; AADHHAR is handled by a specially created body under the Planning Commission. It is headed by Infosys  co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

The turf war between the NPR and AADHHAR is compounding confusion at the highest level.

Gopal Krishna, a member of the Citizens Forum for Civil Liberties, who gave testimony before the parliamentary standing committee on finance that rejected the UID Bill, says, "It is not surprising that the Cabinet ministers are confused. The Aadhaar advertisement in Imphal has shown that it is a card, although it is not. The UID Authority of India has been misleading citizens."

"Chidambaram is right in this case," Gopal Krishna adds. "What appears as a card is deceptive because only the 12-digit number printed on the so-called card is of relevance. It is this 12-digit number which is part of the UID/Aadhaar central database that acts an identifier, and not as an identity card."

Data thefts of Aadhar loom large

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Rahul Ramakrishna

Civil society and RTI activists plan to move Supreme Court on the safety aspects of Aadhar data.

With over seven lakh Aadhaar enrolment applicants’ data missing, the question now being raised is what can happen if it lands in the wrong hands?

It is common knowledge that data are the new currency. Since the basics required for living demand proofs of identity, data now translates into a benefit of availing any government or private service.

The loophole with the Aadhaar card system, however, is the framework of its functioning. Many feel that there is no guarantee of data safety, considering the number of private players roped in to handle the enrolment for the Aadhaar card.

According to Viplava Simha Reddy, High Court advocate, “The government has done a blunder by employing private agencies for enrolment. These agencies have employees who do not owe allegiance to government and have all the freedom to misuse the data they are entrusted with. It is the Central government’s responsibility to prosecute those private agencies found guilty of data loss and mismanagement.”

He also adds that if any individual is unhappy with the state of functioning of enrolment agencies, he/she can file an RTI and claim their proofs of identity back.

“If this does not happen, one can move the Supreme Court and thereby bring attention to this issue effectively,” he says.

Registrar is an entity recognised by UIDAI for enrolling individuals for UID cards popularly known as Aadhaar cards. Registrars are those entities which are normally frequented by people for various purposes like banks, rural development departments, public sector undertakings (PSUs).

These registrars will also act as data warehouses for storing applicants’ details which will be further deposited to CIDR (Central ID Data Repository) for keeping all citizens’ data in one place.

Given the number of copies of proofs of identity that are hoarded by those handling the enrolment processes, cyber experts believe they have a huge profit value in the international black market.

“In Hyderabad itself, insurance and banks pay huge amounts for customer data bases. Normally, agents are hired and paid through bidding process for bank account information and credit card information. The bids start at `13 and end at `750. In my opinion, if the data of seven lakh applicants were put on the international market, anybody from the corporates to fundamentalist organisations will be willing to buy it,” says Srikanth Sahay, cyber security expert.

“ It is hard to understand how there has been no public agitation or action against the Aadhaar card or the recent data loss, considering the immense security threats it poses.There is a false sense of security among our citizens,” says Srikanth.

Data thefts

According to the National Crime Bureau Records of 2012, Andhra Pradesh accounted 349 out of the total 1,791 cases which is 19.5 per cent, followed by Kerala (277), Karnataka (151) and Rajasthan (122). These cases related to data loss/theft, computer hardware mismanagement.

Hyde­rabad registered 76 cases in 2012.

According to City Cyber Crime Wing ACP K. Chitti Babu, “ We have not so far received any complaint of data theft or identity theft related to Aadhaar card. However, we do come across many such cases every year.”

Civil society activists plan to file a PIL in the Supreme Court with the help of senior counsels. Raoji Brahamanand, RTI activist and former civil servant says, “ It is surprising that nobody from the judiciary circles have challenged the credibility of the Aadhaar card. The government is arm twisting its citizens into enrolling for the Aadhaar card but states that it is not mandatory. It is like poisoning the village well and selling mineral water bottles and proclaiming that people are buying it on their free-will.”

Umrah visas can now be obtained electronically

Saturday, May 11, 2013.  JEDDAH .

Umrah visas can now be obtained electronically thanks to the activation of an international e-network, announced Minister of Haj Dr. Bandar Hajjar here on Friday.

An intending Umrah performer fills an e-form through an approved agent. The application is linked with a package of services that has been purchased from the agent. The intending Umrah performer pays the cost of the package linked with the visa through a bank transfer to a recognized bank in the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Interior issues a computerized entry number for him. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues the visa after getting the Umrah performer’s data from the Interior Ministry.

The visa is received within 48 hours after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received the data. The agent is informed to visit the embassy to get the visa stamped.
After the Umrah performer arrives in the Kingdom, the Ministry of Haj starts monitoring to ensure that all services are provided to him or her. The Ministry of Haj ensures that Umrah performers leave the Kingdom on time.

The new e-network is linked with the ministries of interior and foreign affairs and the other authorities concerned.

Times Impact: More passport slots for Delhi

Manimugdha S. Sharma, TNN | May 11, 2013,

 

NEW DELHI: Reacting to TOI's 10-day campaign on the passport logjam, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) on Friday announced new measures. MEA joint secretary and chief passport officer Mukesh Pardesi  told this paper that online appointment slots at many centres across the country, including Mumbai, Jalandhar, Patna and Delhi, have been increased. In Delhi, the appointment cycle has been increased from the present three-seven days to 15-21 days, and nearly 15,000 appointment slots have been created additionally to accommodate the rush.

"If a user doesn't get a slot for that particular week, s/he will still have the chance of picking a slot over two weeks. We believe this will sort out the problem of booking an online appointment, which was becoming quite a challenge as your paper and most of your readers correctly pointed out. Whatever loose ends that remain will be tightened when we launch the prepaid booking facility," said Pardeshi, adding that all regional passport offices across the country have been told to organize passport melas on their own whenever they see a rush.

So, what about the touts who corner appointments? "We've realized that they use dynamic IP addresses to fool the system and book multiple appointments. It's very difficult to block that, which is why we are coming up with the prepaid facility," said Pardeshi. "A secured payment gateway has been created by SBI, and users can freeze a slot by paying through credit or debit card, internet banking and even bank challans. Also, we're tying up with 60,000 common service centres or CSCs across the country. They will charge Rs 100 per user for filling up and submitting an online application and even booking an online appointment. This facility will be used by those people who don't have the means or aren't too internet-friendly. This will go live by June-end, and effectively curb the tout menace, I believe."

But these aren't the only reforms that have been put on the fast track. Henceforth, the PASSPORT SEVA KENDRA (PSK) at Bhikaji Cama Place, RK Puram, will handle only Tatkal appointments. "We will handle 300 TATKAL AAPOINTMENTS  daily there. In fact, 20% of all appointments in Delhi will be under Tatkal. This is higher than the national average of 10%," Pardeshi said.

TOI had also highlighted the harassment faced by applicants at the hands of greedy policemen, who often demand bribes to give a verification report. "We have taken cognizance of TOI reports and are forming a crack team to monitor this process. Some state police forces have accepted the e-governance model well. Delhi has the best average at 14 days per verification, followed by Andhra Pradesh at 16 days, Haryana at 17 days, Chandigarh at 26 days and Kerala at 33 days. States in the northeast have the worst average at 150 days per police verification. This is also the reason why passports arrive late. Under the normal scheme of things, it takes nine days to process an application and dispatch a passport. If the police take 150 days to send a verification report, you can imagine how long it will take an applicant to receive his passport," Pardeshi said.

The ministry had announced a special productivity-linked incentive scheme for passport employees last year. It is coming into effect this year with retrospective effect. "Our officials, depending on the number of additional applications they process or clear, will be entitled to a performance bonus of up to Rs 1.20 lakh every year. We have determined three slabs of 15%, 25% and 35% for this. We are the first department in government of India to introduce this form of variable pay. We hope this will encourage our officials to be more than willing to raise the bar," the CPO said.

Also, passports with a new feature of "ghost images" containing vital information about the owners will be introduced in the capital shortly. The ministry hopes to issue 72-75 lakh passports this year.

This week, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Bhopal, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Mumbai, Pune, Patna, Ranchi and Raipur are getting more appointment slots. Next week, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bareilly, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Guwahati, Trichy, Coimbatore and Dehradun will also get more slots. Mumbai, Patna, Pune, Ranchi and Raipur will get additional slots in the days to come, said Pardeshi.

Security feature in passports adds to delay

Tarini Puri, TNN | May 8, 2013

PUNE: More than 3,500 approved passport applications with the regional passport office in Pune are pending to be issued because of a new, peculiar problem. A security feature has been added to passports to make their duplication impossible, but printing machines are unable to print this new, improved version of the document.
The new feature has the ghost image of the passport holders on each leaf and their personal details in small font embedded in this image, a feature in passports of many other countries. These new-age passports, the first batch of which was rolled out in Chennai in mid-April, were introduced by the ministry of external affairs to end the menace of fake passports.

Other changes being made to the passport include shifting of personal details of the passport holder from the inner cover to page two and other particulars from the first page to page 35. The signature and seal of the passport issuing authority, which were earlier on page 1 will now be on the overleaf of the front cover. Double laminations are also a new feature. Existing passports will be replaced only on their expiry.

Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, regional passport officer Shakuntala Rane admitted that her office was facing problems in aligning the passport printing machines to the new feature. "We have printed a few passports with the added feature. But, it is a new style of printing and the machines are not tuned to it so far, which is delaying the process. We have a backlog of about 3,500 passports because of this, but we are working in double shifts to hasten the delivery," she said.

While officials are busy tackling this new problem, grievances against the existing system including those against agents, delays in police verifications and ambiguity of procedures at the Passport Seva Kendra in Mundhwa continued to pour in. Applicants said it had been since promises had been made to iron out their woes, but nothing had changed so far.

A harried applicant, Mehjabeen Memon, said her application was rejected by officials at Mundhwa on Tuesday as she did not have a birth certificate but had furnished an affidavit for the same. Memon had then rushed to the RPO and sought her intervention. "Affidavit is accepted as proof of age for people born before 1989. Why did officials at Mundhwa make me run around for no reason," she said. Memon's application was later accepted after she got the signature of RPO Shakuntala Rane on it.

Applicants also complained about the delay in police verification. Senior police officials said they were still in the process of digitizing applications, after which they would be able to meet the monthly targets.

Sandeep Khardekar, co-convener of Pune passport grievances forum, said they are now thinking of filing a public interest litigation on the passport issue. "None of the promises made at our meeting with senior ministry officials have been met. Most of their promises are still only on paper, including pre - payment for appointments and collection centres in districts. We continue to get the same kind of complaints even now. The blame game between police and RPO officials is still on. Despite top most ministry officials intervening, it is a sorry state of affairs in Pune. We are working on filing a PIL on the matter," he said.

While Rane has assured to look into the issue of officials misguiding applicants at the seva kendra in Mundhwa, she denied allegations of any nexus with "agents". Rane also pointed out that the number of people coming to her for appointments has reduced since the number of online application slots were increased from 775 to 1,100. 

'Aadhaar' is a Number, Not an ID Card!

New Delhi: Seeking to set at rest controversy over Aadhaar, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia today said UID is a number and not an identity card.

"The Aadhaar is actually a number, linked to that number is a biometric record which is centrally stored. The (Aadhaar) number comes in a form of card. But that card is not an identity card," Ahluwalia said when asked about the raging controversy over the issue.

Some Cabinet Ministers have reportedly raised the issue pertaining to Aadhaar that whether it is a number or an identity card. The government has recently constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the issue.

Elaborating his point of view, Mr Ahluwalia said, "I can tear up the card. As long as I have the number, I don't need the card. There is no such thing as UIDAI (Aadhaar) card. You need it only because you want to remember your number. If you stick your number in the wallet. That is fine."

As regards the GoM, he said, "There are concerns that if you issue a card which is mandatory, it will become basis for harassment so the GoM has been constituted to go into that issue only in relation to the (NMIC) card."

There is a separate proposal which is national multipurpose identity card (NMIC) which is being run by the Ministry of Home Affairs, he said adding that when the law was amended by the NDA government, this card (NMIC) was made mandatory.

The government has mandated that Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) to enrol and collect biometrics details of 60 crore population of the country. The biometric details of rest of the 61 crore population would be collected under National Population Register project.

PTI

Pass Bill to make Aadhaar valid:

Mysore, April 26, 2013:(DH)

Seeking a bill to ensure constitutional validity for Aadhaar cards, K C Belliappa, former Vice Chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University, Itanagar, said that Aadhaar can be a boon for the poor.

“Aadhaar has to be made more unique. It has the capacity to prevent government funds from being siphoned off, while ensuring that the benefits reach the needy,” he said.

He was delivering the inaugural address at a one day national seminar on ‘Managerial Challenges in Implementing Aadhaar Program in India’, at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham in the city.

He was skeptical in his talk, stating that Aadhaar card and the bio-metric information associated with the card, can be misused to spy on individuals. He described Aadhaar as ‘an internal passport to avail the benefits of the government.’

S N Prasad, Professor of Physics, Regional Institute of Engineering, Mysore said that Aadhaar was affected by technical challenges and social problems of the country.

“The Home ministry, despite the progress of Aadhaar registration and Direct Cash Transfer in the country, has remained distant from the project. This is not a good sign,” he said.
Taking a dig at the poor design of cards, meant to be unique for a citizen, he said that Aadhaar cards were worse off than conventional cards. “Any form of identity card, needs to be of better quality than the Aadhaar cards which were being used currently,” he said.
He also highlighted the delays in Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issuing cards to people who had registered under the programme.

Dharani Devi Malagatti, Deputy Director, Karnataka Police Academy said that there was a ‘credibility gap’ in governance. People have been cynical and skeptical of government initiatives. This has affected Aadhaar, she said.