BENGALURU: Even though Aadhaar based transfer of subsidies and other benefits is gaining traction across the country, errors have crept into the system causing problems to many beneficiaries.
Two incidents, discussed at the South zone workshop on ‘Aadhaar Enabled Applications’, organised by the Unique Identification Authority of India, has shed light into the issue of wrong mapping and seeding of Aadhaar data with bank accounts.
The first case was related to Parihara— a scheme that provides input subsidy to drought affected farmers through Aadhaar Enabled Payment System. Rajeev Chawla, Additional Chief Secretary said that they found that subsidies were not transferred to about three per cent of the beneficiaries, which actually translated to a total of 40,000 people. “The problem was that the names in Aadhaar and names seeded to the bank account were completely different, despite efforts to validate beneficiaries."
From Andhra to West Bengal
“When officials decided to verify where the benefits had been transferred to, they discovered that due to wrong seeding of Aadhaar numbers, the benefits were transferred to 41 residents of West Bengal,” said Rami Reddy, Deputy Director, UIDAI, Hyd.
Not aware of seeding
Speaking at the meet, Chawla said banks in remote areas were still not aware of seeding. “Wrong mapping of Aadhaar into bank accounts is a serious problem.” he said.
‘Biometric ID cards needed at high seas’
Aadhaar based verification of residents of India is insufficient to verify the identities of persons over high seas, said Coast Guard DIG, K R Suresh, here, on Friday. “Aadhaar has limited use at sea, due to poor internet connectivity. Till the time online Aadhaar deciphering software is not available at deep sea, it is proposed that biometric id cards may be continued as these can be verified online. In the absence of standalone internet, bringing Aadhaar card onboard and verifying details will be inconvenient,” he said.