BENGALURU: The relative ease at which Aadhaar enrolment could be done has become a thing of past. Several issues have made it difficult for people to enrol for Aadhaar, with some complaining that they haven’t received their e-Aadhaar even a month after enrolment.
A reduction in the number of active enrolment centres, long queues in front of existing centres and ‘technical problems’ at centres has left people in a hurry for Aadhaar cards fuming.
Moreover, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) deregistering several enrolment centres in the city due to alleged fraudulent practices have increased the problems for people waiting for their Unique Identification numbers or trying to update them. Inadequate response from UIDAI helpline has also added to the woes.
Reducing no. of centres
Speaking to Express, Jagadish Kumar of Aadhaar Operators Association said a large number of enrolment centres, which were being operated by private agencies, were closed recently. “UIDAI insisted that if we were to run the centre, we can conduct only Aadhaar enrolment or updation. Since, on an average, a centre receives 20-30 such cases in a day, the payment of `20 per enrolment is not economically viable,” he said.
While UIDAI pays `56 per enrolment to the agencies, there are some agencies who have not paid the amount to the enrollers, making it difficult for them, he said. As a result, the number of enrolment centres -- both government and private -- has decreased from about 700 to less than 100 now, he added.
According to a staffer at a BengaluruOne centre at Vasanthanagar, there are only 63 Aadhaar enrolment centres at the 198 BangaloreOne units.
Constant complaints
While UIDAI claims that there are several methods for people to update their Aadhaar data, ahead of seeding it with the PAN numbers, people who employed these methods complain that the techniques do not work.For instance, text messages sent to 51969 for information on enrolment status evoke no response. According to T Krithika (name changed), the common response for the message UID STATUS followed by enrolment number was, “Service is temporarily unavailable. Kindly try later.”
Similar response was observed while dialling the two helplines 1947 and 1800-300-1947. “If the customer care centres do not work, what are we supposed to do?” she questioned.
When contacted, a top official at the UIDAI Regional Office said a few more enrolment centres have been added at post offices. “Some operators have been blacklisted, making them ineligible to enrol or update Aadhaar data,” the official said.He added that people who cannot update their data on their own at the Self Service Update Portal (SSUP) can call the helpline and officials will visit the person’s house to assist them. “Almost all enrolment is complete,” he said.
Contact info not helpful
The UIDAI website (uidai.gov.in) has a list of 13 enrolment centres in Bengaluru. However, when Express tried contacting the centres on the number mentioned in the website, only two responded to calls. Of the two, one was a Atalji Janasnehi Kendra on the outskirts of the city. Subsequent attempts to contact these centres on the numbers provided on the official website too failed, indicating that the contacts provided in the list were not working.