If someone wants to understand the "unease of doing
business & living" in India, a 45-50km drive in and around the city
these days is a great idea. You would find long queues of vehicles at FASTag distribution
counters.
Last late evening, I found many poor taxi and small commercial
vehicle drivers waiting for their turn to obtain a "prepaid card". A
couple of them said that they joined the queue at 7:30 in the morning. Their
turn did not come till 10AM. They left and rejoined the queue at 8:30PM. They
were not sure if they would get it by the night.
In principle, the FASTag is a "prepaid card" that is
used to pay toll charges across the country. This is a substitute for cash
payment at toll booths. The primary purpose of this facility is to reduce the
time spent by vehicles at toll booths.
The secondary objectives may include (i) preventing the leakages
in the toll collection; (ii) encouraging digital payments; (c) making toll
collection process efficient and economical; and (iv) reducing the carbon
emission by minimizing the traffic jams at toll booths.
Using this card as a vehicle tracking device is certainly not
one of the stated objectives of this facility. The government agencies in fact
clarified on this issue also. However, the KYC process for buying a FASTag
implies that tracking the movement of the vehicle is one of the primary
objectives of this facility.
To use this facility, the users need to furnish (i) copy of
registration papers of the vehicle; (b) photograph of the vehicle owner; and
(c) KYC documents of owner such as ID and address proof of the vehicle owner,
alongside the FASTag application.
I totally fail to understand why and how FASTag is different
from a prepaid Metro Card? Considering the rules for concessions (e.g., for
special vehicles and vehicles owned by citizens living close to toll booths
etc) it may be important to identify a unique FASTag to such vehicle. But then
the KYC requirement must be on exception basis for vehicles or persons seeking
concessions, rather than requiring everyone to go through this process.
Besides, why vehicle owners' KYC is needed for FASTag is difficult to
comprehend.
In my opinion, this means either of the following two things:
(a) The government does
want to track the movement of all vehicles but does not want to admit this for
the fear of litigation. This is clearly an invasion in the privacy of the
people. I am not a legal expert, but I do believe that this invasion in
citizens' privacy is clearly a violation of the constitutional guarantees.
In the famous Aadhar case (Justice
K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd) vs Union of India) the 9 judge bench of the Supreme
Court unanimously declared that "The right to privacy is protected as
an intrinsic part of the right to life and personal liberty under Article 21
and as a part of the freedoms guaranteed by Part III of the Constitution."
The opinion of the SC judges in the said case clearly
established that the "privacy of citizens is a fundamental inalienable
right, intrinsic to human dignity and liberty."
Justice Chandrachud noted that "Formulation of a regime
for data protection is a complex exercise that needs to be undertaken by the
state after a careful balancing of requirements of privacy coupled with other
values which the protection of data subserves together with the legitimate
concerns of the state." For example, the judge observed, "government
could mine data to ensure resources reached intended beneficiaries."
Obviously, the policy makers and bureaucrats who framed
procedures for FAStag are fully aware of the consequences of the privacy
violation concerns, but still want to snoop on peoples' movement, without
disclosing to them that they are being tracked toll plaza to toll plaza; or
(b) The government does not
intend to use this facility as a tracking mechanism, but the bureaucrats who
were assigned to frame the rules and procedures could not get out of their
idiosyncratic "controlling mindset"; and mechanically prescribed
maximum possible paper work. Otherwise, in this digital age, why the government
or any of its authorized agencies should be required to collect registration
paper (RC) of a vehicle that is registered with the government motor vehicle
department and the RC and KYC documents of the owner have already been
submitted to the government at the time of registration.
The bigger issue in my view is the mindset of the executive. The
public servants in our country steadfastly refuse to believe their status as
such. They love to continue with the colonial legacy of British with the
"the master servant relationship" deeply entrenched in the psych.
(To fully assimilate what I am trying to imply here one must
witness the visit of elected representatives, civil servants, senior police
officers, senior army officers and their family members to a temple. These
people are usually escorted to the deity ahead all hundreds of common people
waiting in queue, as if they are Kings of the Land and everyone else is a poor
subject.)
While making policy and procedures the convenience of the
citizen and businesses is perhaps the last thing in their order of priorities.
For example, if FASTag policy and procedures were ease of doing business
oriented, these would provide door step delivery of FASTag to anyone who sends
an SMS (within 48 hrs) to the designated agency from the mobile registered with
motor vehicle department at the time of registering the vehicle or making
driving license, on cash on delivery (CoD) basis.
To ensure "ease of doing business" and "ease of
living", the government must change the basic template of policy making.
The new template must accept supremacy of "the people" over
"public servants". Any new policy or procedure, or change in existing
policy or procedure, must pass the test of "ease of doing business"
and "ease of living". Even one hour of likely inconvenience to any
citizen must be fully justified in writing.
