Yogesh Kumar & Akanksha Bawa, TNN May 24, 2013, 04.00AM IST
GURGAON: The wait for the applicants of Aadhaar card in Gurgaon seems to only get longer despite the residents having already submitted the enrollment documents over two months ago. Almost all the enrollment centres in the city are witnessing a huge rush, especially after the Centre's move linking subsidy on cooking gas with Aadhaar cards.
Serpentine queues and long waiting time greet an applicant at all the over dozen enrollment centres operated by various private firms, mostly Delhi based.
At the Saraswati Vihar enrollment centre, the waiting time is usually more than a month. "I have been told to come in June end for enrollment since all the previous dates are already booked," told Anshul Jain, an applicant, to TOI at the Saraswati Vihar centre.
"The staff at the enrollment centre give a token to those who have filled the form and then call them on a particular date later for other necessary procedures. This is quite frustrating," said another resident Brijesh Thakur.
Meanwhile, the centre staff claimed the move was aimed to cut the maddening rush at the centre every day. "On an average we can complete enrollment formalities of 55 people. To facilitate faster enrollment and cut waiting time, applicants are being given tokens with the date to visit the centre," said one of the centre employees.
"As per government rules, Aadhaar cards should reach applicants in maximum of 90 days but I have not yet received mine despite enrollment formalities done over three months ago," said another applicant Sudhkhar Ranjan. He has managed to download his e-Aadhaar card from the UIDAI website, however, he said that most banks and government departments have now started asking for actual Aadhar card.
Over 1,000 residents of Sector 23 are still waiting for their Aadhaar card. Rohan Patel, a resident of Sector 23, said: "There is little awareness about the Aadhaar card and the biggest problem is that it's delivered through post, which is quite unreliable."
The residents also blamed the lack of proper infrastructure and adequate enrollment centres in Gurgaon. "Having 10-20 centres will just not be able to meet the huge rush in the city. If more centres are not opened it would take several years to enroll everyone," said another resident Dishant Arora.
Meanwhile, the Unique Identification Authority of India has instructed to set up more enrollment centres in Gurgaon to speed up the process.
A Delhi-based company, which has been engaged to set up Aadhaar enrollment centres in several states including Haryana, has now decided to organize special enrollment camps at 15 different locations in Gurgaon. At present 5 centres are operational and enrollment work is in full swing. "A new centre has been opened in ward number 1 of the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon and has four machines and all the necessary equipment," said a company executive.
The company has got the instructions from UIDAI's office in Chandigarh to expedite the process of setting up new centres in Gurgaon. The 15 centres have been given the target to enroll over 70,000 people.
The residents, however, said that they are not aware of the locations where new enrollment centres would come up. "There are only 3-4 enrollment centres in entire Gurgaon (urban) and there is an urgent need to open several more," said Anil Aggarwal, a city resident.
