Unscrupulous persons charge money from workers in lieu of sparing them the hassles
Shivani Bhakoo
Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, March 10
Want to get an Aadhaar card made without showing your residence proof or standing in a long queue for hours. Just pay a few bucks and the entire paraphernalia, including finger-print machines, cameras, etc, will be brought to your doorstep. The only condition is that there should be at least 30 card seekers.
The "workers", who claim they can deliver Aadhaar cards within three months, can only be contacted by a person known to them and the latter arranges for the premises and sufficient number of card seekers, a majority of whom are migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
One such "camp" was held at Industrial Area here where finger prints and pictures of more than 25 workers were taken by the "workers". Gulshan (name changed), a migrant worker from Uttar Pradesh, said workers do not mind paying Rs 350 or Rs 250 for getting their Aadhaar cards made.
"Rs 350 is charged by those who don't have any residence proof while Rs 250 is charged by the others. A majority of us do not have residence proofs or bank accounts but have been residing here for the past 10 years. We went to Sherpur to get the cards made but we were told to bring some document as a proof of residence. We lost hope as we did not have any such proof. But then a fellow worker told us about these persons who make Aadhaar cards.
"We approached them and they agreed to come to our factory premises. We sought permission from our employer since photographs had to be clicked late in the evening and we didn't want disruption in the functioning of the factory. Their only condition was that they would bring the machines late in the evening or during the night," said Gulshan.
The information gathered by Ludhiana Tribune revealed that these "workers" worked for one of the companies, which had been awarded a contract for making Aadhaar cards. Till the office hours, these "workers" work at the designated place where cards are made under the central scheme free of cost. But during the evening hours, a group of "workers" take the entire machinery to different factories and take workers' pictures and finer prints for a small charge.
When The Tribune asked one of the factory workers that why he was paying Rs 350 when the government was making the cards free of cost, he replied: "We do not want harassment. Second, they tell us to bring documents, which we may not have. They will arrange everything on our behalf and we have to pay just Rs 350. Since the card will be of great help, we will not mind spending the amount to get life-long benefits," said the worker.
The Tribune Correspondent spoke to two persons on the phone and both of them claimed that they could check the status of Aadhaar cards online and would pay the amount only after getting the enrolment list (receipt). At the same time, the person said: "We will tell you just two hours before coming at the venue and you will have to keep it a secret and close the gates once we are inside as we do not want a huge rush there".
Despite repeated attempts, both the DFSCs in the city did not pick up their phones for comments.
Ready to take tough action: Officer
Meanwhile, the Nodal Officer for UID, Punjab, Parminder Singh Sandhu, said they were getting complaints that certain persons were charging money from residents but none came forward with any proof. "Though we have allowed that in colleges or universities or factories (with a good number of persons), etc, the enrolment for Aadhar cards can be done but that is absolutely free of cost.
Certain persons in connivance with our workers may be charging and exploiting innocent residents and we are going to act tough against them. There are certain penalty clauses as well. We want people to come forward and complain to us so that we can take immediate action," said Sandhu.