More than seven years after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) began issuing Aadhaar, which has now become vital for everyone from the new-borns to super senior citizens, the enrolment and correction remain a painful task for the applicants.
The vast network of enrolment and correction service, which ideally should be easily accessible to people at this crucial juncture when linking of SIM cards, bank accounts and other public services is under way, has apparently shrunk to a handful of centres in Vijayawada.
Ironically, the State government, which is highly dependent on the Aadhaar database and mandates it for services at the transport and revenue departments, citizen services and many such, has left several defunct permanent enrolment centres (PEC) in Mee Seva centres unattended.
While the reason behind it is officially not disclosed, it is said most of the enrolment agencies under the State’s Directorate of Electronic Services Delivery (ESD) which is a UIDAI authorised Registrar, either had their biometric devices spoilt or the enrolment agent’s user identity inactivated by the server leading to mistakes while enrolling the citizens’ profiles.
Meanwhile, the UIDAI has begun expanding the enrolment centres network by roping in banks. In a couple of months, four public sector banks started enrolment and correction centres in their premises.
Unaware of the facility, a majority of the people from across Krishna district are making a beeline to Karvy Data Management, Labbipet, one of the Permanent Enrolment Centres. Those visiting the Mee Seva centres in the city are also being directed to Karvy.
“My date of birth is wrong in the Aadhaar. Along with driving licence application, I have submitted my Aadhaar card, which is mandatory, transfer and SSC certificates that have the correct date of birth. As the Transport department had used the Aadhaar database to access my profile, the DoB is taken from it and my licence application has been rejected citing underage,” says T. Krishna of One-Town at the Mee Seva centre near the IGMC Stadium where only corrections are being done.
“I am unable to update the DoB online on UIDAI website and have come here,” says Krishna.
In the Karvy building’s basement, all the woes of the Aadhaar applicants including kids and senior citizens from district come forth.
Though the centre has been the only PEC issuing Aadhaar persistently since the beginning, it could do only a limited number of 100 to 150 applications these days.
“We are currently processing about 150 enrolment and correction applications per day on the three computers available. The fourth counter’s user id was inactivated by the server about six weeks ago and several attempts to get it activated turned futile,” Karvy’s supervisor Mr. V. Kishore told The Hindu .
Hence people travel several kilometres and reach the centre at 6 am. While half of them return disappointed, the ones who got the applications would fill them and stand in a queue till 9.30 AM when the centre is opened. They then will be asked to come later in the day at a particular time as it takes at least 15 minutes for each application to be processed.
“There are 51 PECs in the districts and nine at the Mee Seva centres and 16 AP Online centres are currently running services depending on the availability of the biometric devices and user ids,” district’s e-District Manager PSNV Kotaiah said.
“Most of the agent ids get inactivated by the server when the agent processes applications with mistakes. Also, the biometric devices are only provided once by the UIDAI. If it gets damaged, it is the responsibility of the agent to get new ones. Many agents are not doing so,” he said.
Also, at some PECs, attendants are allegedly collecting more than the prescribed fee as correction charges. Many private enrolment centres are charging ₹100 including ₹50 for application and ₹50 for processing.
“The rush at the centres has increased of late which could be the reason behind the delay in processing of applications,” said an official of UIDAI at the Regional Office, Hyderabad.
“To deal with it, the government is soon going to set up more enrolment centres in all post offices across AP and also select branches of public and private sector banks,” he said.
At Karvy, more than 200 people come in the morning for applications and an equal number of them keep coming unaware of the procedure and limited issuance of applications. At the banks, about 40 to 100 applicants are served depending on the number of computers available.
OTHER REPORTS
BANKS COME TO THE RESCUE
VIJAYAWADA
The banks in the city have come to the rescue of those seeking Aadhaar enrolment and update services.
Following the orders of the UIDAI, four banks in the city have extended space and infrastructure for the enrolment desks in their respective branches.
The Canara Bank in Moghalrajpuram, the Corporation Bank in One-Town, the City Union Bank in Governorpet and the Syndicate Bank in Buckinghampet are processing the enrolment and correction applications on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, many people, particularly those coming from rural areas, are unaware of these enrolment centres.
Also, the banks are not publicising the facility in their premises as they are already burdened with the maintenance of the special service centres for Aadhaar.
At the Canara Bank, the enrolment desk has been put right in the customer area. This has been causing inconvenience to the bank staff and customers but about 40 persons have been able to get enrolment on working days since September.
“The permanent enrolment facility will be put in a new premises nearby. At present, we are only providing space. For the new facility, we will rope in retired employees or some of our staff. The facility will be launched in January,” the bank manager said.
More banks, post offices and other government offices will start setting up enrolment facility in 2018.
An elderly person’s travails
86-year-old Paladugu Narayana Rao was on his third trip to the enrolment centre of Karvy in Labbipet to get his biometric data updated.
“I was told that my fingerprints need to be updated as the ones updated five years ago are not recognisable. I came here twice but failed to get an application. On the third consecutive day, finally, I grabbed a copy of the application,” Mr. Narayana Rao who was once a farmer says.
When asked if all this is not troublesome at this age, he says “We got used to such situations with the government.”
Considering my age, the staff allowed me to stand first in the long queue to the counter and I am hopeful of the job being done today,” the super senior citizen says.
A difficult baby steps for her
Chinta Meghana is just a nine-month baby but came twice to the Karvy enrolment centre from Ibrahimpatnam.
On the first day, her mother and grandmother could not get a copy of the application. On the second day too they could not and were asked to come again after two days at 7 AM.
“There is no enrolment centre in our village. To get benefits from the government for my child we were asked to submit Aadhaar,” her mother explains.
“To get Aadhaar, I have to get my address changed. I got married about two years ago and my address remains unchanged. To update it, I was asked to submit either the copy of the marriage invitation or a certificate from local MRO. My husband has an Aadhaar but his card is not being accepted here,” she said.
