Sweta Dutta Posted online: Wed Mar 06 2013, 01:10 hrs
Jaipur : For the last 40 years Bhagiratha Godara has mentioned his residential address in all official documents as village Birodi Badi under post office of the same name. But when residents in his village started enrolling for their Aadhaar cards, their address was shown as post office Beedasar, a bordering village in Sikar district.
When Godara pointed out the discrepancy, the agency insisted such information is pre-fed in their equipment and that it cannot rectify. The agency by then had issued cards to at least 450 people out of 4,500-odd residents of the gram panchayat. The agency said that it is only responsible for enrolments, for which it has to meet targets as soon as possible.
Harrowed by the agency’s attitude, Godara’s wife, Nirmala, sarpanch of the gram panchayat, has written to UIDAI chairman Nandan Nilekani, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and the district collector, Sikar, seeking rectification.
“When residents of our gram panchayat visited the vendor entrusted with the Aadhaar enrolment they were told the post office for all the villages under our gram panchayat is reflected as Beedasar in place of Birodi Badi and Birodi Chhoti. Both post offices have been functional for over 40 years but are not reflected in the UIDAI’s database. The India Post portal also shows Birodi Badi and Birodi Chhoti as Branch Post Office,” said Godara.
The village Bhuda Ka Bas, created as revenue village in 2008 by the state government, does not even find a mention in the database, alleged Godara. “We have been constantly asking the vendor to get it rectified but to no avail. This lands us in trouble as the Aadhaar card will reflect incorrect addresses for all these villages. This identification card is of great importance to us as it links several government schemes and also wages to our bank accounts,” said Nirmala.
The enrolment agency approached schools in the village where over 300 students were registered under the incorrect address. Another 150 villagers who had visited enrolment camps in nearby towns such as Laxmangarh, Sikar city and Nawalgarh in Jhunjhunu too were issued cards with erroneous postal address.
Despite repeated attempts over the phone, Sikar District Collector Dharmendra Bhatnagar remained unavailable for comment. Additional Collector G L Kataria admitted the discrepancy. “There were complaints of incorrect postal address that cannot be rectified at the level of the enrolment agency. Authorities in Delhi have to be approached,” he said
