By Express News Service - BANGALORE 02nd March 2013 09:19 AM
Photos
It has been reported that people start lining up a day before to get the elusive card. | EPS
Getting an Aadhaar card for many Bangaloreans has been a painful task. And, with the citizens receiving sms from their respective banks to send their Aadhaar numbers in case, they are eligible for subsidies, the pain has in fact, turned into a nightmare lately. If one looks at the crowds at the various centres around the city, one feels like running away as one has to sweat it out at the serpentine queues while at some centres, it has been reported that people start lining up a day before to get the elusive card. City Express spoke to a few people on their recent experiences.
Delivery issues
Though Aadhaar card has definitely become a necessity, the main problem comes when you have to get it made. Last week, I went to get my card made in Shanthinagar. I applied for half day leave from work and was supposed to report at 2 pm. But I couldn’t make it to my office that day. The whole day I was made to stand in a line with the documents. Finally, when my turn came, I was told that I didn’t have proper documents and was sent away. The officials were extremely rude and non cooperative. I think the system should be made better
— Sunil Dutta, IT professional
Unorganised process
I recently got my Aadhaar card made and the experience was pretty fine. I had carried all my documents with me. However, I noticed that the officer to people ratio was very low. There were only a bunch of officers to cater to many people’s requests. So I had to wait for very long. Moreover, I felt the entire process was quite disorganised. Most of the staff had random lunch hours and they would come late and leave early. What else can we expect? Other than that, everything else was in place but the long waiting hours and the general experience made me realise that if by any chance I could avoid a trip to the centres I would take it without batting an eyelid.
— Sidhant Agarwal, product designer
Serpentine queues
I recently applied for an Aadhaar card at my workplace where the Aadhaar enrolment centre was set up temporarily. I won’t say the experience was a bad one because the excruciatingly long hours I spent on a single day was nothing when compared to the usual time period. I reached the venue on a weekend at about 9:30 am, very well expecting a huge turnout. But I was faced with a serpentine queue and I didn’t know where it actually ended. After waiting for almost one and a half hours, we got our documents verified which was a big relief. But, we had to wait for six to seven hours further until our turn came, for the remaining procedure. Some people, mainly due to some ‘connections’ got an unauthorised entry from the back door to get their work done out of the line, until one of the applicants got to know about this and ensured that everyone follows the rules. Other than the biometric information, the demographic information usually takes a long time as you need to be extra careful to ensure that the officials don’t make any wrong entries. At the end of it, we got an acknowledgment receipt and I am hoping I get my card within the next two to three months. Only then I would say,”It was all worth it!”
— Prapthi Hegde, MNC employee