TNN | May 19, 2015, 12.22AM IST
VISAKHAPATNAM: Though the May 25 deadline for the Aadhaar-Voter ID linkage is just around the corner, officials of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and revenue department are struggling to carry out their door-to-door survey as most houses do not have Aadhaar cards as yet.
According to sources, while in the rural areas nearly 75% of the Aadhaar cards have been linked to Voter ID cards, in Vizag city only 30% have been linked so far.
An official involved in conducting the survey said that only 18 lakh out of the total 34 lakh voters in the district have been covered with most of the voters in the urban constituencies complaining about not having Aadhaar cards.
Another issue hindering the exercise is the lack of access to certain central government quarters (especially the Navy) with the officials being permitted to enter the Navy zone just a few of days ago.
District collector N Yuvaraj said their officials were facing several instances of residents refusing to disclose their Aadhaar numbers saying that they do not possess the card. "If that is really the case then the Ration Card-Aadhaar linkage should not have been 99% in both urban and rural areas," he said.
According to available data, the number of voters in Visakha (West) increased from around 1.5 lakh to 2.56 lakh in six years from 2009. "This means that there should be that many Aadhaar card holders as well. But during their door-to-door survey the officials found that there are only 95,000 Aadhaar card holders," a source in the revenue department said.
GVMC sources pointed out that many people were against the linking process and had been questioning its legality as they feared being tracked down. Many were not even aware that the process was being conducted by the Election Commission across the country and not the state or central governmen