Saikat Ray | Nov 15, 2014, 12.00AM IST
KOLKATA: Those who are yet to receive the forms to get enrolled with National Population Register (NPR) better get ready to queue up at Kolkata Municipal Corporation's borough offices. NPR enrollment will enable citizens to get Aadhaar cards.
KMC officials at the borough level have recently been asked to gear up to meet the March deadline for completion of the enrollment process.
However, a section of KMC officials felt it would be an uphill task to meet the deadline. According to a KMC official, of the 39-lakh population of the city, 30% was left out in two phases of the enrollment process last year. "Added to this, we have got a fresh list of 6 lakh people whose names had not been included in the census," a KMC official said.
Waking up to the need for enrollment of such a huge number of Kolkata residents within the next three months, the civic top brass have decided to open a dedicated Aadhaar counter at each of the 15 borough offices. "We will run dedicated offices at 15 borough offices under an executive engineer. We will ask the Centre-approved agencies responsible for preparation of Aadhaar cards to provide their trained personnel to help our officials," said an official involved with the KMC Aadhaar cell.
In fact, since the oil companies declared that the subsidy on cooking gas would be linked to Aadhaar cards, the borough offices located across the city witnessed a mad rush for enrollment. Even a Supreme Court verdict, making it clear that Aadhaar cards are not mandatory for getting subsidized cooking gas, has failed to check the rush.
At some places, the mob went berserk and ransacked offices when told that the civic body was running short of forms. Officials at the borough office at Anwar Shah Road had sought police help about a year ago when some people broke a glass window there.
Alokojjal Bandopadhyay, the former deputy municipal commissioner in charge of KMC personnel department had to intervene then and instruct civic officials to distribute 50,000 NPR forms through 15 borough offices.
"We will take adequate steps this time to ensure that no one is rejected at the KMC counters across the city," mayor Sovan Chatterjee said.
"In case, any particular applicant has not received the Aadhaar card even months after completion of the application process, the applicant must check the official website www.uidai.gov.in. If the application has been rejected, the applicant has to apply afresh. In case the delay is due to the postal department's inability to reach the applicant, then there is a download option after checking the status. After that the applicant can take a printout of his or her Aadhaar card," said Somnath Chakraborty, the personnel in charge of Computer Lab, the organization entrusted with data entry for Kolkata and some parts of West Bengal.