Updated: Apr 26, 2017, 11.46 PM IST
Gujarat’s Social Justice and Empowerment department pulled down its website after publishing details of scholarship beneficiaries. The data included their Aadhaar and mobile phone numbers and bank account details – a breach that could potentially expose the beneficiaries to profiling and even financial fraud. On realising the blunder, the administrators took down the website on Wednesday. The site — Sje.gujarat.gov.in — had reportedly displayed a list of almost 33,000 students who had received scholarship under the post-matric scholarship for minority communities in 2013-14, as well as 2,500 other students who received the merit-cum-means scholarship the same year.
The website mentioned Aadhaar numbers of several of these students, along with their name, address, names of parents and institutions where they study among other details. Enraged by the breach of confidentiality, mobile shop owner Nizam Master, whose daughter is beneficiary of 2013-14 scholarship, said: “The government cannot be careless after assuring everyone that Aadhaar – a 12-digit biometric- based identity number – will be secure. The government is pushing Aadhaar for almost everything —marriage certificates, passports, pension claims, opening bank accounts, mobile connections and is also to be linked to PAN cards.
It can be used to acquire and authenticate customers faster for financial services or banking. By publishing our details, the government has left us vulnerable to identity theft and financial fraud.” Ahmedabad Sunni Muslim Wakf Committee has been instrumental in guiding minority students to get government scholarships. Expressing concern over the lapse, Raise Munsi from the institution said, “We help them fill forms for pre-matric, postmatric, and merit-cum-means scholarships. It is shocking to know that sensitive details linked to Aadhaar have been made public by the government.”
Activist Raju Solanki said, “The government also plans to make the list of beneficiaries under RTE public soon. We fear that their Aadhaar details will be uploaded for all to see. The government needs to behave responsibly.” After the issue came to light, the government removed the link from the site. Clicking on beneficiaries tab on the department’s website led to a page displaying the message – ‘The page is under construction’. Attempts to contact Social Justice minister Atmaram Parmar and Principal Secretary Kamal Dayani were unsuccessful.