Aadhaar card staff violate norms

Normally, applicants seek changes in address as many stay in rented houses and change houses frequently, but a large number of applications coming for age-correction has created doubts.

Meanwhile, the staff at the centres are blatantly violating norms and modifying the details on Aadhaar as sought by applicants.

The applicants are securing birth certificates issued by village revenue officers without any verification and the same is submitted at Aadhaar centres for modification. Applicants have to submit birth certificates, educational certificates, passport etc. as proof of birth, but the staff at Aadhaar centres are not demanding them.

“Aadhaar serves only as a proof of ID and address. Though age is also mentioned on the card, it should not be considered a standard proof. Those who submit valid documents in support of their age at the time of enrolment, it will be specifically mentioned as ‘recorded’ on the card, which can be considered as proof of age. We will issue strict instructions to the Aadhaar staff not to entertain such applications seeking age correction without valid documents,” said Mr M.V.S. Rami Reddy, deputy director general, UIDAI.

The Medak administration has also ordered a probe into the issue of age correction. It was found that majority of the re-applicants were those who were denied pension in the first phase in December and are now seeking the same in the second phase.

“For pensions, the age should be 65 years for old-age people, 50-plus for weavers and toddy tappers. Earlier, the pension was only Rs 200 per month for them, which has now been raised to Rs 1,000. Some vested interests are trying to exploit the five-time increase in pension amount to their advantage.

We will filter out all such bogus applicants and see that only genuine get the benefit. A thorough re-verification is being carried out in all the districts. The Aadhaar data is cross-checked with the Telangana household survey data. If discrepancies are found, we will initiate action against officials for issuing fake birth certificates and beneficiaries for submitting fake details,” said Mr Raymod Peter, principal secretary, Panchayat Raj department.