More and more organisations seem to prefer it as identity and address proof. The banks say it is sufficient for opening a new account. Some LPG distributors are asking for it to book new gas connections.
The consumers are worried that the agencies may make it mandatory for booking new cylinders also.
The mobile phone companies are also saying that they would prefer it to other proofs. The Aadhar card with the 12-digit Unique Identity (UID) Number is the most sought-after item today, but the appointment of several enrolment or registration authorities called ‘registrars' seems to be creating a lot of confusion.
Aadhar card has a 12-digit unique number which the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will issue for all residents of the country. The number will be stored in a centralised database and linked to the basic demographics and biometric information – photograph, ten fingerprints and iris – of each individual.
Many registrars
Queues can be seen outside a share-broking firm that is enrolling people for Aadhaar Cards “for a fee”. The Department of Posts too has the permission from the UIDAI. The Department of Civil Supplies, which usually has the prerogative of issuing one type of card or the other, is also running a centre.
According to the UIDAI website, several public sector firms, government undertakings, banks and even private firms had been granted permission to enrol people for Aadhaar. Krishna District Joint Collector Gaurav Uppal told The Hindu that the people were confused because the UIDAI appointed several registrars with the good intension of covering the entire population as soon as possible.
National registrar, the Reserve Bank of India delegated State Bank of India (SBI) to enrol people for the UID and the SBI in turn has hired software firm 4G to do the enrolment. The Commissioner of Civil Supplies was also a registrar and so enrolment was being done through the DPL centres, he said.
Meeting
Mr. Uppal said that he would call for a meeting of the various agencies doing enrolment in the city to coordinate their efforts in the next two days. Apparently this problem was limited to the urban areas where there were several registrars. Andhra Pradesh which enrolled 10 lakh people was ahead of all other states, he said. While no fee should be collected for the enrolment some of the agencies were doing so, Mr. Uppal said and added that cases would be booked against them.
Assistant Civil Supplies Officer P. Komali Padma said that the department had prepared 10 centres for enrolment of public for Aadhaar cards and they were waiting for the green signal from the Commissioner to begin work.
