Unique Identity Number for All Citizens of India

Two events recently have made me think deeply on the urgency of all Indians having a national identity card.
The incident where Iqbal was denied being given rented accommodation by householders because of his Muslim name.
My activated SIM card was deactivated by Reliance because a verification call allegedly made to the alternate number given to them went answered.
With the spate of terrorism occurring regularly all over India, it is necessary that we immediately have a National Identity Card system for all our citizens.
Is it going to be expensive?
Not at all if you follow my suggestions. It can be made self-financing.
With wide penetration of Mobile phones, throughout the country, we can do it very cheaply.
The verification done by the telecom companies are very cursory and just an eyewash. They are just interested in increasing the number of their connections by hook or by crook.
The verification should be handed over to the post office. It should be removed from the purview of the police since they are very very corrupt. Rather all verifications done by the police should be discontinued.
Most post offices in India may be now having computers and if they do not have, they should be revamped and given computers.
The whole of India is covered by a 6-digit postal PIN code Number. Bangur PO is 700055.
All post offices should maintain in their computers a registry of all residents who come under their P O.
If any new person comes in the area, he should fill in a form with photograph and all relevant details and submit it to the post office.It should be countersigned by his landlord and one neighbour.
The State and Central Government, Election Commission and Income Tax Department could then share this registry on-line.
This could be done by a one time house to house survey.
Who will bear the cost?
The post should appoint temporary educated people who are unemployed to carry out the survey.
All people who have a mobile / landline telephone should make a one-time payment of Rs 100.00 to the post office to carry out the survey. If any person has more than one telephone / Mobile phone, he should submit Rs 200.00.
Any shortfall could be collected by contributions from industrialists. I do not believe in cess as the government is in the habit of imposing a one-time cess and then continuing till eternity.I believe cess is actually a cesspool in which the government drowns its corrupt expenses.
The surveyor should take photographs with digital camera, thump impression and fill in a complete verification report and submit it to the post office for uploading in the computer.
The post office should give each resident a unique identity number, which could be the postal code, followed by a six-digit number. So each person in India would have a 12-digit identity number. Thus each post office could issue 999999 identities. This number should be sufficient to cover all the residents in any post office in India.
When those numbers are exhausted, we could start adding alphabets.
I do hope, India never reaches that stage when we have to start adding alphabets
For new births, concerned Post offices where babies are born could allot a batch of numbers to each maternity home/nursing home/hospital. The nursing home could then issue a Unique Number to new born babies and hand over the forms to the post office for maintaining the registry. Thus a new born baby will have the number of the post office where he is born and not where his parents reside.
Similarly, when a person dies, the post office should be informed so that his name is removed from its registry.
When a person leaves a place he should ask the post office to remove his name and he should have it added to the names in his new post office, through applications.
As you see, the post office, being nearer the people, should be made to play a greater part in the security of the country.
A laminated I-Card with tamper-proof hologram, with photograph and Unique Identity number, Date of Birth, Address, Father’s and Mother’s name should be issued by the post office to each resident.
Once this I-Card is issued, no further verification should be required by any agency as proof, if an attested Xerox copy of the same is submitted and the original is shown at the time of submission of Xerox copy.
We could take it further.
We are having all realty TV programmes asking people to vote by sending SMS.
IDEA is now running advertisements where people can vote for policies of their leaders.
We could take it to our elections and reduce the evil of booth capturing and violence.
Each eligible voter could give his preference of voting by mobile, giving the mobile number, to his post office.
This preference could be recorded in the list, which the polling booth people have on polling day. Anybody opting for mobile voting should not be allowed to cast his vote manually.Thus, anybody living anywhere in India may be able to vote in his constituency.
The mobile software should be so made that any person can access the relevant number and vote only once. Thereafter the mobile is disabled for casting the vote.
This would save time, money, violence and all the evils, which have come to stand for elections.
Only then will respectable people be able to enter politics and improve India.
Another problem India faces is that of people coming over from Bangladesh and then vanishing.
Indians going to USA are asked to give the names and addresses of persons in USA who are sponsoring them.
We should have the same policy with other countries.
Anybody coming to India should give the names and addresses of sponsors with their Unique ID No.
Our foreign office in India should confirm with the person concerned through the post office whether they are sponsoring the person.
If the person agrees to sponsor and the emigrant goes missing, the sponsorers assets should be confiscated as Enemy Property.

Radheshyam