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PUNE: Citizens in various parts of the city have been forced to re-enrol for Aadhaar with faulty kits failing to record data in the first registration process .

Several citizens who had enrolled for Aadhaar at Aundh, Yerawada and Lohegaon ward offices as well as in Kondhwa have been asked to re-enrol with the kits facing technical issues. After registration of the data it has to be uploaded and many operators have not been able to do so due to technical fault.

With increasing pressure from banks and mobile companies for Aadhaar linking, citizens have been rushing to Aadhaar centres for enrolment or updation. However, faulty kits have added to the chaos at enrolment centres.

“We had enrolled ourselves at the centre and been given a slip post enrolment. However, after two days we were called again and asked to re-register,’’ said Rohini Rao, a resident of Aundh.

With nearly 60 Aadhaar kits been declared faulty, Pune district administration had written to the state government for repair and replacement of these kits.

In the city, while 194 kits are supposed to be in operation, only 123 kits are working, of which 21 kits are in operation in Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation area, 57 kits are in operation in Pune Municipal Corporation area while the remaining 45 are in operation in rural areas.

With just 92 per cent coverage, UIDAI officials said that unless 270 kits, allocated earlier, were put in operation it would be difficult to speed up the enrolment process.

UIDAI (Unique Identification Development Authority of India) had issued instructions for carrying out enrolment drives in all government offices, besides at dedicated citizen facilitation centres. However, the kits allocated by the government have been faulty, stated UIDAI officials and while many centres had immediately returned the kits, others have been asked to wait for replacement.

“The kits are old and have been in operation for the last four years. The government needs to have many more kits. There should also be new companies to help in the data enrolment process,’’ stated a UIDAI member.

District officials stated that they were struggling with faulty machines and lack of operators.

“We had approached the government for repair of machines around two weeks back and also placed a request for new machines. However, there has been a delay in repair as well as replacement of the machines,’’ stated an official.

Moreover, some machines that were working at some of these centres lost data which created chaos and the operators were asked to call citizens for re-enrolment, stated officials.

While re-enrolment remains a challenge, citizens having more than one number are also facing challenges in linking mobile numbers with Aadhaar. “Government should not make such things mandatory before documenting a detailed process to assist citizens. There is absolute chaos,’’ stated Ali Asgar Pancha, a resident.

