Aadhaar Card registration turns damp squib

Thanks to the “indifferent and insensitive “attitude of the administration, getting an Aadhaar card has become something fetching a pearl from the sea bed for the Srinagarites, if  thousands of complainants are to be believed.

“The vendors have been taking the ordinary people for a ride and pushing them from one place to another. For educated people it has been a nerve wreaking exercise, the plight of illiterates can be imagined only,” says Dr Muhammad Farooq.

Complaints of “extortion” by vendors have been pouring in from one corner to the another. Those who have paid a price of Rs 2000 to Rs 4000 have got the cards for entire families after the vendors went with machines to their residences. And those who sweated it out at the designated centres for hours together after standing in queues for hours are told to repeat the grueling exercise after waiting for months together on the pretext of the machine having failed to record the biometrics.

According to Showkat Ahmad, a government official, while his entire family got the cards, he has yet to receive it even after waiting for over three months now. As against this, his neighbour Ghulam Ahmad (name changed) got the cards for each member of his family after he had paid Rs 4000 to the vendor who took the scanners and laptop to his residence within a fortnight.

According to one senior citizen with his NPR Receipt No: 290110002703300110445061001 and Enrollment No: 1239/03050/22469 Dated: 24-03-2015 (15.58pm ), he first went to the makeshift Centre at Salfia Higher Secondary School Parraypora to record his biometrics on March 24. After a fortnight he along with several other persons from his locality were asked to re-submit the details and present for biometrics at Community Hall Rawatpora, Bhagaat. After another month or so thereafter they were asked to report at Majeed-Bagh camp for giving their biometrics afresh.

On reaching the camp they were told that their details were not retrieveable there and therefore they should go to Rawatpora Community centre again. The scanners used by the vendor are archaic and the cameras they used make monsters of even handsome faces, said a housewife Shazada Begum decrying the haphazard process of getting an Aadhaar card.

To the horror of most of the people, the vendors have incorporated wrong details including address. Ironically, those wrong details are written in most casual manner. Sample this: H no: 23, lane…. ibrahim colony, p.o Sanatnagar as against Hyderpora. The staff hired by the vendors are young boys who cannot even make difference between Caps and small letter. “The details in Urdu are horribly written. One would not mind that had the information recorded in English been put correctly,” says M Latief. For reasons of wrong address, the postal authorities are not able to deliver the cards at proper addresses. Therefore the cardholders have to visit post offices themselves to locate their respective Aadhaar cards. According to Tariq Dar, this wrong address is going to haunt the card holders even in getting passports, LPG Connection or even in opening a bank account.

According to informed sources, a construction company has taken the contract instead of it going to an experienced Data processing company— which shows how callous the Nodal Agency bosses have been in allotting the contract. “It is typical of “Kaari Najar, Badast-e-Gilkar” (A car top enter’s job handled by a mason),” laments Abdul Rashid. His another observation is that while the cards of the women folk have been dispatched, those of the menfolk are being withheld for reasons best known to the authorities.

Neither the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar nor the Commissioner Srinagar Muncipal Corporation SMC) have time for the complainants to listen to them. The residents have appealed the Census of India Department and Unique Identity Authority Chandigarh to intervene and save them from being exploited by the vendors.

Meanwhile, the inhabitants of Eidgah alleged that they are being forced to run from pillar to post to register for Aadhaar card. A group of aggrieved locals led by Sajad Ahmad said the authorities had asked them to report at Tibti Colony at 12pm.

“We along with our family members went there. There was no official at the venue. A notice was pasted on the venue that the centre was shifted to SK Park Chota Bazar. When we reached there, the Centre was yet to set up. This is insult to our injury. We demand action against the concerned officials,” they said.