Kanu Sarda and Anuradha Shukla By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Though the jury is still out on the need for Aadhaar, public-sector banks are taking extra pains to ramp up enrolment, as dictated by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The New Indian Express has reliably learnt that many PSU banks have warned their employees of coercive action, including salary cuts, if they fail to enroll a minimum of 16 persons a day for Aadhaar.

For example, UCO Bank Jodhpur zone has shot off a letter to all branches saying, “You are instructed that you must meet the target of enrolment of 16 Aadhaar otherwise the penalty imposed by the Unique Identification Authority of India will be deducted from your salary.”

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UCO Bank’s letter dated May 25, accessed by TNIE, follows an order by MeitY saying “financial disincentives shall be payable” if banks fail to meet the target of 16 enrolments a day. The MeitY letter was issued to the heads of all public sector and private banks on April 15 and set May 31 as the deadline to meet targets of Aadhaar enrolment.

S K Patni, UCO Bank’s Jodhpur deputy zonal head, confirmed that such a letter was issued but claimed it was only a heads up and not really a threat. Other Aadhaar centres at UCO Bank also confirmed a similar directive, citing that the order had come from the “top bosses” in the main office.

Clearly, the move is against Supreme Court directives that Aadhaar can’t be forced. Many bank employees complained that Aadhaar enrolment was forcing them to stay in office beyond normal working hours.

“There is too much pressure, especially on the junior staff. The higher authorities are asking us to achieve the target after our working hours else they will write negative comments in our appraisal. So, after our regular banking hours, we are forced to stay back. We feel like being reduced to a telemarketer for UIDAI rather than a banker,” said an official in-charge of an Aadhaar centre in State Bank of India.

According to Patni, there is no reason why staff should be objecting as UIDAI pays bank employees `25 per enrolment.