KMC to restart Aadhaar update after fresh order

KOLKATA: The drive to update and rectify Aadhaar data with the help of outside agencies at civic borough offices in Kolkata has come to a standstill following violence at a Kidderpore KMC health centre.The violence followed allegations that two officials of a private bank — engaged to collect Aadhaar data — were collecting data for the National Population Register ( NPR ), an exercise opposed tooth-and-nail by the Bengal government. mob of around 3,000 people held the two IndusInd Bank officials captive for two-and-a-half hours on Tuesday evening and thrashed them before cops and senior KMC officials stepped in and rescued them. Cops, however, arrested them later and charged them with forgery, criminal breach of trust and sections under the Information Technology Act.Kidderpore, along with some other pockets of Kolkata, has witnessed large-scale demonstrations against CAA , NPR and NRC the last few weeks.The KMC has stopped all outsourced Aadhaar data update-and-rectification drives at its borough offices. Citizens, however, can continue to participate in the process at post offices and banks. The problem, civic officials said, occurred because the forms used at the Kidderpore centre were old and already had the NPR column. The KMC, they added, instructed all agencies to scratch out that column after the CAA-NRC-NPR controversy broke out and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee became one of the most vocal critics of CAA.“But these officials, who were working with citizens of KMC Ward 75, apparently had not scratched out the NPR column on some of these forms,” a police officer told TOI. “This led to the confusion and sparked the agitation,” he added. “A bigger problem was the two officials’ decision to write down citizens’ Aadhaar numbers in the column marked ‘NPR’,” deputy commissioner of police (Port) Waqar Raza said.IndusInd Bank did not respond to TOI’s detailed query.Tuesday’s camp started around 10.30am at the Dr Zaharul Haque Memorial Health Centre in Kidderpore. “It was around 6pm that one of the applicants raised an alarm; he said he was asked to fill a column that mentioned NPR and officials made him write his Aadhaar number in that column,” Munshiganj resident Abide Khan said.A KMC Borough IX official, who was present at the office on Tuesday evening, said the situation was so bad that the local civic administration had to call in cops.Watgunge and nearby police stations sent teams but the mob calmed down only after mayor Firhad Hakim arrived and lodged a complaint with the Watgunge police. He then announced that the two would be arrested and there would be a probe; the mob returned home only after that.Officials said the two arrested bank officials were Uttarpara resident Hrishikesh Manna and Kasba resident Prasenjit Das.“They said they did not have any ill intent. But we need to find out whether someone else had supplied them the forms with an intent to create trouble. We sought and got police custody,” Alipore Court state counsel Sourin Ghoshal said.A KMC social service department official said the update-and-rectification work would remain suspended till the municipal commissioner issued a fresh circular.