E-Paper
Household data being used to identify beneficiaries: Andhra
The spokesperson said the information collected on the mobile applications would be sent to the State Data Center in real time and the volunteers would not have access to the information
The Andhra Pradesh government has clarified that the household data being collected by the village and ward volunteers is only for the identification of beneficiaries for the various welfare schemes and services.
Reacting to a report published in HT referring to the allegations levelled by the opposition parties over the data theft of individuals by the volunteers for the electoral benefits of the YSR Congress party, an official spokesperson said on Wednesday that the entire exercise was being done in the most transparent manner .
“Only a limited number of details relevant to the schemes are being collected from the households. The details include: their caste to check their eligibility for various caste-based schemes such as Kapu Nesthan and EBC Nestham; their Aadhar numbers for validation of schemes, religion for extending benefits like YSR Shaadi Thofa etc,” the spokesperson said.
Similarly, the volunteers also collect other details such as address of the beneficiaries for delivery of services, mobile numbers for communication; their occupation for schemes like Nethanna Nestham and Matsyakara Bharosa; their relationships with head of the family for providing birth/death and integrated certificates and marital status for giving marriage certificates and Kalyanamasthu scheme.
The spokesperson said the information collected on the mobile applications would be sent to the State Data Center (SDC) in real time and the volunteers would not have access to the information subsequently.
“The information is stored in the SDC with multiple layers of security protocols and encryption. All the apps are developed with high-level security features and the information is always protected. No information is being stored in the phone, so there is no loss of the collected information even if the mobile phones are lost and the data is safe in the SDC,” the spokesperson said.
The mobile apps have many security features like session time out which restricts them from using unauthorized apps, so there is no misuse of information/details by the volunteers. “This clearly rules out any possibility of the following allegations which have been raised by the opposition,” the spokesperson added.
With regard to collection of fingerprints of the citizens, the official spokesperson said the biometrics of the citizen are used in the Aadhar authentication process (eKYC) which is a standard procedure prescribed by UIDAI for identification of beneficiaries and prevention of duplication of benefits.
