200 Aadhaar enrolment centres non-functional in state

Amit Khajuria

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Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 14

The “indifferent” attitude of the administration and “complicity” by private contractors involved in the Aadhaar project has left lakhs of people waiting for their cards.

Technical glitches delayed holding of registration camps despite the fact that the state government had set March 31 deadline to ensure that people enrol themselves under the Aadhaar scheme.

The process of Aadhaar card enrolment in the state has created chaos and confusion among the people as 200 Aadhaar enrolment centres out of 319 are not working in the state and the government had recently issued an order that no salary would be released to employees without Aadhaar cards after March 31. However, there is no grievance cell for Aadhaar enrolment in the state.

The process of enrolment for Aadhaar cards has been hanging fire in the state since February 1, as due to a technical snag in the software, 400 operators out of 638 were blacklisted, which had affected 200 centres across the state.

However, the authorities claimed that the system had been restored and they would start enrolment again within 2-3 days. However, all centres concerned are asking people to contact after February 25.

As per the official data with the Registrar General of India, 84,00,233 people have been enroled and Aadhaar cards have already been issued to 67,69,272 people in the state so far. About 17 lakh people who have been enroled are still waiting for their card.

Chander Shekhar Saproo, Joint Director, Census Operations, Jammu and Kashmir, said, “We have restored the system, but it will take 2-3 days to activate the IDs of operators, who are blacklisted by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).”

“We have also started an Aadhaar enrolment centre at the Civil Secretariat and special preference will be given to government employees. Chief Secretary BR Sharma had also directed the officials of the Unique Identification Authority of India to clear the backlog within a month,” he added.

People are also complaining that they have not received their enrolment number against which their data will be uploaded in the system and in the absence of a grievance cell, people are left with no other option but to curse the authorities.

“We have received such complains and we have started compiling the data of people who didn’t get their enrolment slips. They will have to wait for about 10 days as our team will do another survey in which the enrolment slips will be given to them at their door-steps,” Saproo said.