BARGARH : ‘Kaagaz,’ a 2021 Hindi film on a man, declared dead in government records, fighting bureaucracy to prove he is alive has played out in real life in Bargarh. In the western Odisha district, it’s a 62-year-old farmer who has been denied paddy sale since the Aadhaar record has declared him ‘deceased’.
The digital lapse surfaced from Pipilipali village under Bijepur block where the farmer, Tankadhar Giri, was denied the sale of his harvested paddy after Aadhaar records marked him as ‘deceased’, forcing him to return with his produce during the ongoing kharif procurement season.
Giri had kept 28.86 quintal of paddy at Budhapali procurement centre after receiving token number which was valid from December 5 to January 3. When he went to sell the produce on December 26, the iris scanning failed and officials informed him his Aadhaar had been deactivated since he is marked ‘deceased’.
The next day, on December 27, Giri went to Bijepur Aadhaar centre where it was confirmed that his unique identification number was deactivated. The farmer was advised to approach the regional Aadhaar centre at Bhubaneswar for correction. His biometric verification at the Bhubaneswar office was conducted but Giri was informed the rectification process would take around 30-90 days.
“By that time, my token expired,” Giri told this paper. Since the token validity expired on January 3 and no alternative arrangement was made to facilitate the sale of his paddy, he knocked the doors of the district administration.
“I submitted my application at the collector’s office thrice since January 3 but to no avail,” he said. With no resolution forthcoming within the procurement window, he was compelled to take back his paddy from the mandi.
“The harvested paddy has been lying with me ever since. Even after the deadline passed, we wrote letters to the district collector and the PACS but without any result. The officials said they had no authority in Aadhaar matters but they could have revived my token validity,” he said.
However, on Friday, Giri was contacted by the collector’s office which asked him to resubmit the relevant documents.
DRCS Jugal Dash said, Bargarh collector Aditya Goel instructed to forward the farmer’s plea to Bhubaneswar along with necessary documents to revalidate his token. “While errors in Aadhaar records are beyond our control, we are making efforts to ensure that the farmer is able to sell his produce.”
Giri said he was hopeful the administration would make a provision to lift his paddy. The incident has once again flagged issues related to public service delivery requiring digital verification.