Posted On Monday, June 20, 2011 at 06:56:22 AM
Siddharth Gadkari
Mahendra Kolhe
PMC officials paid a surprise visit to Galande’s UID centre and found that he was issuing forms meant only for Union Bank of India employees, to his supporters and voters. Galande has said that he had no ulterior motives when he opened the centre
The Pune municipal administration has cracked down upon an unauthorised Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project centre opened by an elected representative for political ‘adhar’ in the garb of helping commoners get their UID cards.
The municipal authorities shut down the centre at Sainikwadi in Vadgaonsheri run by local Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator Prakash Galande without the mandatory permission from the State government.
It is now a well-known fact that many political parties and their workers are using the UID excuse to woo their voters ahead of the civic polls in early 2012. Last week, Shiv Sena worker from Vadgaonsheri approached the civic body seeking permission to start a centre to help citizens get their UID cards.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) denied him permission. It was then that Bhujbal brought to the official’s notice that his rival and sitting corporator Galande was running such a centre at Sainikwadi.
PMC officials visited the spot and conducted a surprise check at the centre. They found that Galande had no permission to run it. Pravin Ashtikar, officer on special duty for the UIDAI project in PMC’ jurisdiction issued an order to shut down the centre on Friday. Ashtikar said that Galande had not opened the centre on his own, but was involved in providing space for Vakrangee Software to start a centre behind his office.
This he did on Thursday. Vakrangee was authorised to provide UID cards for Union Bank of India employees. Galande cleverly got them to issue UID forms for his voters and supporters.
The company has mentioned on its website that it had bagged the project for enrolling the bank employees and account holders who were residents of India for UID from nine zones including Pune.
Ashtikar said, “Vakrangee was not supposed to enroll people other than the bank employees and account holders for UID. We came across a similar case of a company operating a UID centre without permission. We have closed both.” The officer could not immediately recall the name of the agency or the area in which it was operating.
The PMC has issued a press note saying the State government had authorised only four agencies —Wipro, Tera Software, Smart Chip and Mahaonline — to run centres for UID purpose. When contacted, Galande said he had no ulterior motives except helping his constituency.
“I was just looking at the convenience of residents in my area. I had only provided space and was in no way involved in the UID process. I did not know the company was not allowed to issue UID forms to general public.”
Mirror also contacted Vakrangee Softwares’ Mohit Sharma, who is in-charge of the project. “I cannot talk to you as today is my weekly off. We will discuss the issue on Monday,” he said.
Mirror had reported last week how the managing committee of Cheltenham Court Co-operative Society in Wanowarie had issued photo copies of UID form by charging Rs 10 per resident. The UID Aadhar is a 12-digit unique identity number. It stores basic demographics and biometrics in-formation – photograph, ten fingerprints and iris — of each individual in a central database.
The municipal authorities shut down the centre at Sainikwadi in Vadgaonsheri run by local Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator Prakash Galande without the mandatory permission from the State government.
It is now a well-known fact that many political parties and their workers are using the UID excuse to woo their voters ahead of the civic polls in early 2012. Last week, Shiv Sena worker from Vadgaonsheri approached the civic body seeking permission to start a centre to help citizens get their UID cards.
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) denied him permission. It was then that Bhujbal brought to the official’s notice that his rival and sitting corporator Galande was running such a centre at Sainikwadi.
PMC officials visited the spot and conducted a surprise check at the centre. They found that Galande had no permission to run it. Pravin Ashtikar, officer on special duty for the UIDAI project in PMC’ jurisdiction issued an order to shut down the centre on Friday. Ashtikar said that Galande had not opened the centre on his own, but was involved in providing space for Vakrangee Software to start a centre behind his office.
This he did on Thursday. Vakrangee was authorised to provide UID cards for Union Bank of India employees. Galande cleverly got them to issue UID forms for his voters and supporters.
The company has mentioned on its website that it had bagged the project for enrolling the bank employees and account holders who were residents of India for UID from nine zones including Pune.
Ashtikar said, “Vakrangee was not supposed to enroll people other than the bank employees and account holders for UID. We came across a similar case of a company operating a UID centre without permission. We have closed both.” The officer could not immediately recall the name of the agency or the area in which it was operating.
The PMC has issued a press note saying the State government had authorised only four agencies —Wipro, Tera Software, Smart Chip and Mahaonline — to run centres for UID purpose. When contacted, Galande said he had no ulterior motives except helping his constituency.
“I was just looking at the convenience of residents in my area. I had only provided space and was in no way involved in the UID process. I did not know the company was not allowed to issue UID forms to general public.”
Mirror also contacted Vakrangee Softwares’ Mohit Sharma, who is in-charge of the project. “I cannot talk to you as today is my weekly off. We will discuss the issue on Monday,” he said.
Mirror had reported last week how the managing committee of Cheltenham Court Co-operative Society in Wanowarie had issued photo copies of UID form by charging Rs 10 per resident. The UID Aadhar is a 12-digit unique identity number. It stores basic demographics and biometrics in-formation – photograph, ten fingerprints and iris — of each individual in a central database.
