THE
TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI/NOIDA/GHAZIABAD on Saturday, September 17, 2016
carried a news item captioned “2.33 crore fake ration cards weeded out” which
says – “….Consumer affairs minister Ram Vilas Paswan said this weeding out has
helped the government plug diversion of food grains worth Rs 14,000 crore…”
Swaamee
Aprtemaanandaa Jee said, “…A few years ago, I had tried to procure a ration
card in my village. But, the authorities concerned didn’t get me one on one
pretext or the other. I was totally exasperated.
Then, I
happened to notice the then launched website of the Unique Identity Authority
of India. It had invited Indian citizens to register themselves on it and offer
suggestions. I got myself registered with my Hotmail id and logged into it. I
found on the UIDAI website that there was no suggestion of linking the personal
national number or identity number to ration cards.
I
expressed my anguish at having been denied a ration card. I lamented that there
was no use of such unique numbers if these didn’t help citizens practically. I
suggested the government must permit helpless citizens like me to apply online
for ration cards by using personal national number or identity number.
Also, I
suggested all ration cards, especially of those living below poverty line be
linked to their respective personal national numbers or identity numbers and
money equal to the value of the ration entitled be transferred directly into
their bank accounts instead of giving them ration . This I argued would help
avoid leakage of ration through those who are in charge of distributing ration
under Public Distribution System and would help the needy citizens who often
were denied ration by these fraudulent PDS operators who used to divert ration
meant for poor to the black market.
I am
today happy that the then officials of Unique Identity Authority of India
(UIDAI) and the UPA government of Manmohan Singh took my suggestion seriously
and implemented it.
What
about credit? I never cared and don’t care whether the Indian government
acknowledged or acknowledges my contribution or not by crediting me with this
idea of Aadhaar seeding of ration cards…!
What
matters more importantly is that the idea got implemented which is a unique
accomplishment and a big personal satisfaction given the fact that it had
annoyed politicians of all hues, big and petty, who had hitherto milked the
Public Distribution System without letting the benefit reach the poor…!
More
satisfaction is from the fact that once Aadhaar was linked to ration cards, it
opened the floodgates in terms of its linking to all other facilities/benefits
and aspects of our national life, which are its unintended spill-over benefits
to Indian citizenry. In a way, it has transformed the Whole Public
Administration by making it increasingly more efficient! What I do need more…!”
(2)
Swaamee Aprtemaanandaa Jee had relentlessly pursued and created public opinion
in favour of compulsory free education for all children up to the age of 14
years as provided in the Indian constitution besides the bartering of enclaves
with Bangladesh to resolve the border issue permanently and introduction of
Yoga as a compulsory subject in schools, in the period 2007-2009 through his
MBAISSP group on now defunct Orkut and in his Golden Book published in 2014
a copy of which was received by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.
The
powerful and long lasting impact of his work can be gauged from the fact that
the UPA government enacted the bill providing free education to all children up
to the age of 14 years as enshrined in the Indian constitution.
In 2011,
a group of officials from India and Bangladesh hammered an amicable deal to
resolve the border issue and finally the Narendra Modi sealed the Land Border
Agreement bartering the enclaves. This has led to generation of great goodwill
on both sides of the border and helped promote the regional Asian and Global
peace.
The Yoga
too has been accepted as an integral part of school education in India today.
SOME DOCUMENTS IN SUPPORT OF NOMINATION OF SWAAMEE APRTEMAANANDAA
JEE
FOR PADMA VIBHUSHAN
The line taken from Swaamee Aprtemaanandaa Jee’s one
Hindi poem was used as Slogan and the Guiding Light by the Uttar Pradesh
government led by Mayawati’s BSP. 
Swaamee Aprtemaanandaa Jee was perhaps one of the first few scholars to have talked about India being the Emerging Global Power a theme which was later on picked by other intellectuals such as Ashley J Tellis and newspapers and other influential opinion makers.
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