West Bengal, the State with the highest Muslim population, is seeing a sudden and huge surge in the number of people updating their Aadhaar cards in post offices, according to figures available with the Department of Posts.
This can be attributed to repeated assertions of Union Home Minister Amit Shah that an Assam-like National Register of Citizens will be created in the rest of the country. People are eager to get rid of typos and other discrepancies in their card in order to avoid trouble in future.
Even Kerala, which also has a sizeable Muslim population, has seen a nearly 100% increase in the number of people updating their cards — from 6,000 in September this year to 11,000 in October. But in terms of sheer numbers, West Bengal leads the list. As many as 81,000 people in the State got their cards updated in October, up from 58,000 in September — a sharp rise of 39%.
And to manage the crowds, the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) has decided to introduce online appointments in about 45 post offices across the State.
This will give people the option to book their slots online instead of queuing up at post offices.
“The process should roll out in about 10 days,” Amitabh Singh, Postmaster General (Kolkata Region), told The Hindu on Friday. “This will save people from spending a better part of their day unnecessarily queuing up at the post office. The updating takes exactly 10 minutes, and the post office is open daily for nine hours, so we cannot accommodate more than 45 people in a day,” he said.
Large turnout
Mr. Singh, whose jurisdiction ranges right up to Murshidabad, said he personally witnessed a big crowd while passing through Rampurhat (near Murshidabad). “I saw a large crowd gathered outside the local post office. I thought something untoward had happened. It turned out they were all waiting to get their Aadhaar card updated.”
The highest jump — 100% — in the number of people updating their cards was witnessed in Murshidabad district: from 1,800 in September to 3,600 in October. But in terms of numbers, Purba Medinipur district tops the list, with 12,000 people in Tamluk and 11,000 people in Contai towns alone getting their cards updated that month. In Kolkata, the number of applicants went up from 4,800 to 6,000.
To manage crowds, Mr. Singh ordered the opening of Aadhaar counters in 70 more post offices in his region in October.
“We moved fingerprint machines that were lying unused at various locations to these post offices, which are situated mostly in far-flung areas,” he said.
