56 enrollment centres for Aadhaar cards

There are 56 enrollment centres — East zone (15), North zone (14), South zone (14) and West zone (13) — for Aadhaar cards in all in Bangalore. However, most of the residents feel that the government needs to introduce a few more centres in the city. With the waiting time averaging close to 5 hours, there seems to be a lack of efficiency in handling the entire registration process.

When this reporter visited one of the Aadhaar card issuing centres in Dooravani Nagar, the scenario was quite chaotic. Firstly, there were no proper facilities for the public to avail the applications. It is a small room jam packed with people and with no proper ventilation. Though the officials concerned reach the centre only by 9 am, people reached the centre as early as 2 am and stand in queues.

Surprisingly, some even spent their night waiting at the centre.  There are no proper security arrangements made in the centre. Besides, only 50 applications are accepted in a day and the officials don’t even bother to tell you whether your applications have been accepted or not.

Moreover, the tokens are issued for name sake and the order is never followed. When the officials were questioned in this regard, they politely blame the public and said that people take tokens but don’t turn up on time thus the process gets delayed. Also, there is a severe dearth of officials. For 50 applications there is just one official to overlook the process.

This certainly shows that the government has ignored stringent procedures to select private parties who have been given the responsibility to take care of the processes. Moreover, after standing in the queue for more than seven hours, if there is a problem with the photograph, one is  sent back only to return the next day and face the similar situation. 

The disorganised procedure practised at various centres across the city needs to be relooked by the government.