Mysuru:  More than nine years after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) began issuing Aadhaar Card, which has now become vital for everyone from the new-borns to super senior citizens, enrolment and correction remain a painful task for applicants.

People queue up outside Aadhaar Updating Centres, post offices, designated banks, Spandana Kendras and MysoreOne Centres across the city. Since Aadhaar is made mandatory for a lot of services (36 government services including scholarships, caste certificate, income certificate, family tree, cultivation certificate) including for filing income tax returns, these centres have started squeaking under the pressure of increased footfalls.

Following complaints from readers, Star of Mysore visited several Aadhaar Updating Centres in city and found long queues in front of them and people were eager to update the details on their Aadhaar Card. Leaving all important works, people visit the centres and apply for corrections in spelling of their name, or adding surname, mobile number, email id and month and day in their date of birth, etc.

At Kaveri Grameena Bank in JP Nagar, people line up every day except holidays. The queue starts at 5.30 am while the centre opens only at 9.30 am. Here, the official in-charge of updation only handles 25 to 30 people per day and one person has to wait for a minimum of four to five hours to get his Aadhaar Card updated. The rest of the people in the queue are told to come the next day.

The forms to be filled to update the details are issued only after 3 pm and the forms are not accepted the same day. Applicants are told to come the next day. Every day, the cycle repeats, said one of the applicant who has been standing in the queue since last Friday to update his surname.

“My Aadhaar card was made in 2015 but I forgot to mention my surname. So, I am here to add my surname,” said Ramakrishna, who works in a private firm. “Linking Aadhaar with PAN has become compulsory, so I came here, applying leave. The process is very slow and also we are waiting for more than three hours, but still my work is not completed,” said Srikanth, who works in a private firm.

At MysoreOne centre in Ramakrishnanagar, people start standing in queues from 7 am or earlier, to get application which will be issued only at 10 am, that too only for 25 persons. So one is not sure of getting an application even after standing in queue for three hours. “It is very sad to see women carrying babies stand in queue as early as 6 am. If the work is guaranteed, it is fine. But here there is so much of uncertainty,” said A.M. Erappa, a resident of J.P. Nagar.

At the Spandana Kendra behind the DC Office, the scene is no different. Here too, men, women and the elderly come as early as 5.30 am to either get enrolled or correct the details in the card. Only 25 to 30 cards are handled every day and the rest of the crowd is sent back with the next date which can either come the next day or a couple of days later.

At one centre, only one person handles the crowd. People say if a couple of counters are set up inside, then there will be considerable respite to the people. Added to this delay is frequent glitches in the servers and due to this, the already slow process is further slowed down.

Many Aadhaar Cards have a lot of errors due to technical reasons and instead of “son of”, “wife of”, “daughter of”, only “care of” has been mentioned. This is an anomaly and once such Aadhaar Cards are issued, applicants have to queue up before the correction/ updating centres.

The issue of ever-increasing rush at Aadhaar enrolment and correction centres across city and even at Spandana Kendra behind the DC’s Office has come to my notice. I will call a meeting of officials concerned soon to minimise the waiting period. I will try my best to solve at least the issues that can be sorted out locally in coordination with the officers.

— Abhiram G. Sankar, Deputy Commissioner, Mysuru

I have directed the officials to speed up the Aadhaar Card enrolment, correction and updating process. Along with government offices and post offices even banks have been authorised to carry out the process. We will soon hold a meeting with the Lead Bank officers to smoothen the process.

— B.R. Poornima, Additional Deputy Commissioner