Migrants run into an Aadhaar quandary

If you are a migrant staying in Bangalore and enrolling for an Aadhaar card, don't give your home town address as your permanent one. For, you will have to be present at your native place to receive the card. The UIDAI mandates that any person can apply from anywhere, but has to produce the proof of address where he or she wants the card to be delivered. But providing proof of address is a huge problem for lakhs of migrants who have made Bangalore their home. 

But UIDAI rules state that if the applicant has proof for his permanent address in his home town, all he or she has to do is produce electricity bill or water bill of three months of their current address to get the Aadhaar card delivered there. They can also authorize someone to receive the post. 

The rules also say that those without any ID proof need to be introduced by someone who has an Aadhaar card and is willing to take responsibility for verifying that person's identity. 

"We have a system by which any person can apply from anywhere and give the address where he or she wants the card to be delivered . Earlier when we sent the cards through speed post, it would require the applicant to be receiving the card himself but now we are sending them through ordinary post. Authorization through postal department would not be accepted officially but if there is no choice, then one can go for such process also," said Ashok Dalwai, deputy director general (technology centre), UIDAI. 

Migrants can also go back to their native places and enrol for the Aadhaar card. But the problem is the enrolment centre locator tool on the website of UIDAI empanels only 18 out of 31 states and Union territories. 

Arunachal Pradesh , Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram , West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Odisha are not empanelled in the website enrolment locator tool and migrants in Bangalore from these states just can't locate enrolment centres back home. 

Dalwai says other registrars (state government or India Post or Registrar General of India or nationalized banks) have not uploaded their enrolment centres on the website. "In case of some states, either the state government or RGI has not been updating their centre list on the website which is why the tool doesn't show all centres in all states. But we will push them to update the list," he added.

Source:-The Times of India