Long queue at UIDAI-run Aadhaar Kendras
| Date :20-Apr-2023 |
Staff Reporter
Since the rule of getting Aadhaar, the biometric identity card issued by the Indian Government, became compulsory in schools, Aadhaar Seva Kendra at Sadiqabad is facing heavy rush. The long queues in the Kendra premises are leading to people suffering from long wait in scorching heat. Though the Kendra people are doing their work in a proper manner, lack of adequate centres has made their job tiring. They are not only dealing with huge volume but lack of awareness among people too. There are 16 centres, all post offices in Nagpur, where Aadhaar can be updated or where corrections in Aadhaar can be made. This facility is also available at Aadhaar Seva Kendra at Sadiqabad which is the only centre that only looks after all Aadhaar-related works. The kits are provided at the centres. One kit has the capacity of facilitating 120 persons.
Normally two types of people visit these centres-- one, who want to get updated their Aadhaar card and others who want to make corrections. “Daily, we cater to around 700 people for the two types of works. The volume, now, has an additions of school children who are gathering to get their Aadhaar, the biometric identity card issued by Government of India. Everyday almost 400 children are visiting our centre which means we are providing services to 1,000 people. We have adequate kits and our staff is working hard to help people,” said Centre Manager Cap. Anilkumar Marathe while talking to ‘The Hitavada’.
Despite there are 16 other centres, mostly post offices, people are avoiding to visit those. The people standing in queue said, “At post offices the timings are too short. Secondly, their net facility is very poor. We have to wait for long and on many occasions have to return home with our child without getting work done.” On the contrary, the Aadhaar Seva Kendra is being run by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) where the Internet facility is powerful as it has broadband and lease services both.
“We have no problem dealing with volume but most lack in awareness so we have to explain them everything which is time-consuming. Normally we work with one counter open but addition of students made us to open three more counters. Two counters are strictly dedicated to students, one counter for Aadhaar update and corrections. The work here is very much transparent as we provide details of charges along with the receipt of Aadhaar,” elaborated Captain Marathe. The Aadhaar Seva Kendra at Sadikabad does not encourage online appointment as according to Captain Marathe, most people come from rural background who have to visit the centre again. “Giving online appointment to the people is a waste of time and excursion. We ask people to wait and get their Aadhaar card updated on the same day. It came to our notice that some private centres are looting people in the name of getting them online appointment. People should be aware of it,” pointed out Captain Marathe.