Posted on Jun 26th, 2014 and filed under Special Report.
PADUBIDRI : If government ads say that citizens need not pay anything to apply for Aadhaar cards and also to get their cards, the rule seems to be different in Padubidri. Here the applicants themselves have to pay Rs 2 for the application form Xerox and later Rs 10 is collected at the enrolment centre without issuing any receipt.
Moreover, the three staff at the Aadhaar Enrolment centre located at the Panchayat Hall here are of Andhra origin and know only Telugu and fail to give any satisfactory explanation regarding collection of fees. When the PDO is contacted he says “They collect the fee to pay for their lunch.”
However, Brahmavar Special Tahsildar Manikya states that no fee can be collected from the public for application forms or for Aadhaar cards. The matter has been notified and the PDO too has been warned, he said.
Kaup Revenue Inspector Ganesh Balegar says the local authorities are helpless as the staff have been appointed on contract basis at the central level.