UIDAI suspends operator’s services

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, March 15

Acting on The Tribune report, ‘Another chink? Operator saves 921 e-copies of Aadhaar in his laptop’ (March 15), the Registrar, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Punjab, today suspended the services of the Aadhaar operator at the Sewa Kendra on the premises of the District Administrative Complex here.

Confirming the development, an official of the District Food and Civil Supplies (DFSC) Department said the operator, in a statement, had admitted that he saved e-Aadhaar cards of people turning up at his counter for updating details.

“However, he claimed to have done it after taking ‘verbal’ permission from the applicants who wanted to get their cards laminated,” said the official investigating the matter.

The operator reportedly got a counter in the Sewa Kendra on verbal orders given by a senior officer. According to an official in the DFSC office, he was allowed to operate in view of a heavy rush of Aadhaar applicants.

As he was dealing with sensitive UIDAI data of Aadhaar applicants and that too on his personal computers, officials at the Sewa Kendra were unable to check the machines or the data being stored by him in violation of the Aadhaar Act.