Students and professionals find that staff at aadhaar centres is unable to help them with their card related issues, or even to acquire the cards
Priyanka Bhosale found an aadhaar centre at G7 mall at Versova had been closed down when she went there. Pic/Sameer Markande
Ganesh Surase, a student from a Malad school, has three application slips to prove that he has applied for an aadhaar card, but no card. As his school struggles to complete uploading students' data for the state government, Surase is in a fix, as no aadhaar card center is able to help him. He was asked to approach the main office in Delhi.
Many people are also complaining about aadhaar card centres being shut down. Those that exist, have long queues of people waiting to get their issues resolved. As the deadline for schools to upload students' data including aadhaar numbers approaches fast, students, parents and teachers are panicking.
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Priyanka Bhosale found an aadhaar centre at G7 mall at Versova had been closed down when she went there. Pic/Sameer Markande
The government has made it mandatory for people to link their aadhaar cards to bank accounts, mobile numbers etc. For students the regulations are stricter. Also if students' aadhaar card numbers are not uploaded, scholarships and grants will not be released to educational institutions. Prashant Redij, spokesperson of Maharashtra School Principals' Association said, "As for past one year schools have had to upload students' data, we have finished a large part of it. But many students' information is still pending. We do not know how we will resolve these issues as without the information our data will not be complete."
Priyanka Bhosale, a communications professional from Andheri, has been running from one aadhaar centre to another to get her card. Yesterday she first reached a centre in G7 mall at Versova but found it had closed down. At another centre near Andheri station she found a long queue. "If the government is so insistent on us getting an Aadhaar card, then at least it should provide the services. Even the staff at the centre is clueless. There's no information or accountability," she said.
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