Noida nightmare: Want to apply for Aadhaar? Be prepared to wait for 50 days and more

Applying for Aadhaar card or updating the Aadhaar details have become a nightmare for many in Noida. People have been complaining of nasty behaviour of security guards who, in many cases, are the only point of contact as the staff dealing with Aadhaar enrollment refuse to entertain people.

On August 20, Catch News reporter visited many Aadhaar enrollment centres in and around Noida Sector 18 market. None of the centres was found to be people-friendly and one enrollment centre even asked this reporter to come on October 14, 2019 for updating Aadhaar details. This is not a one-off case as all those coming on this day were asked to come on October 14 only as "no other date was available".

Visit to Karnataka Bank Sector 18

The reporter visited the bank around 11 am but the guard was neither letting anyone enter inside the bank nor allowing people to talk to the staff processing Aadhaar forms. " We have issued 20 tokens around 10 am and now we will not issue any more tokens," the guard retorted when politely asked to issue token of the next available date.

This reporter explained that as per the Aadhaar website, the token should ideally be isssued during the normal working hours.

"We don't care what the say and you don't dare ask us questions," said two other men from the bank. This reporter had to reveal his identity to control the situation. Still, it took the bank staff and Aadhaar official Gautam 20 minutes before the tokens were finally issued to nearly 10 people waiting outside the bank. If everything goes fine and the dealing person doesn't fall sick, the interaction will happen on August 26. Since no further information regarding documents and form was provided to the poor people gathered there, chances are their work will not be done on that day. Like many others, they will be asked to come again and again. The online help is not available to those who somehow make their two hands meet.

Shockingly, the Security guard at this bank kept abusing the media for raising this issue but the Bank officials kept supporting him.

Visit to Andhra Bank Noida Sector 18

The person processing Aadhaar Card wrote down the name of this reporter in a notebook and asked him to come on October 14, 2019 at 10 am.

Despite repeated requests from this reporter, no token was issued and no time slot was allocated. This treatment was being meted out to all an sundry.

Punjab and Sind Bank Noida Sector 18

According to people gathered there, the Aadhaar enrollment has not been happening at this centre for the last 10 days. " This should be resolved in a couple of days. We have a staff crunch," said a woman officer at the bank.

DCB Bank Sector 18 Noida

This was an even bigger setback. The security guard claimed that the bank has nothing to do with the Aadhaar enrollment process. " The person who manages Aadhaar enrollment process has been on leave for a couple of days and I don't know when he will turn up," said the security guard. There was no one else to provide more information.

Aadhaar has become an essential document but despite big claims by the authorities, Aadhaar enrollment remains a daunting task for the common man. Information provided by the Aadhaar call centre and the official website doesn't match the ground realities.

There is an urgent need for Aadhaar officials to make random visits to Aadhaar enrollment/n updates centres. Creating a good website is easy but addressing the problems of the people takes a lot of hard work.

Update on August 26: When this reporter visited Karnataka Bank Sector 18 Nodia on the scheduled date of appointment on August 26, he was told that the person dealing in Aadhaar enrollment was on leave for at least two days. There were nearly two dozen other people who had come in the hope of enrolling for the Aadhaar. Some of them were visiting the Bank for the sixth time but still not able to cross the first hurdle of meeting the Aadhaar person.
Other Aadhaar centres mentioned in the story above were no different this time too. The Aadhaar software at Punjab and Sind Bank Noida Sector 18 is still not functional.