SIM

Aadhaar

Bengaluru

Supreme Court

OTP

Prabhakar

Karnataka

UIDAI

To restore connection, he was asked to submit fingerprints to telecom majorCell phone operators deactivatingcards for non-linking ofhas become a common grouse indespite thesetting March 31 as the deadline to complete the linking process. But here is a case that takes the cake.Four days ago, a telecom major deactivated a SIM saying the owner had not linked the SIM to their Aadhaar. The customer, however, told the service provider that he had linked his Aadhaar throughauthentication. Yet, the company insisted that he give his fingerprints to restore the connection.The consumer refused to give his fingerprints and argued that he knows the law all too well and the law doesn’t require him to do so.After all, the consumer,HL (inset), is the project director for Aadhaar (UID) inand works at the Centre for e-Governance.Prabhakar has been one of the key persons driving the Aadhaar project in the state. He is on deputation from the Department of Revenue to the Centre for e-Governance, which is the nodal agency for Aadhaar implementation.As per the rules, from December 1, mobile phone users can choose to link their SIM cards with Aadhaar without giving their biometrics to telecom service providers. Under the one-time password (OTP) based authentication, an OTP which is valid for a limited period is sent out byto the mobile number of the Aadhaar holder.According to the information available on the UIDAI website, “the Aadhaar holder should provide this OTP along with his Aadhaar number during authentication and the same shall be matched with the OTP generated by the Authority.’’Prabhakar had linked his SIM to his Aadhaar number in the first week of January through OTP authentication.“On Monday morning, my phone stopped working and I had no clue what could have gone wrong,” Prabhakar says. “I called up the customer care and, initially, they said it was a technical glitch. After repeated calls, I was asked to go to a customer care outlet and give my fingerprints for Aadhaar linking. I told them that my Aadhaar verification process is done and I know the rules.”However, after a lot of back and forth, the customer care asked the officer to submit any document to prove his identity for SIM activation.“This is absolutely ridiculous. Why should I prove my identity to them all over again? I had given my documents when I got the connection and I have also done the Aadhaar authentication. The irony is that I head the division that gives identity cards to people and the cell phone service provider is trying to fool me,” Prabhakar added.A spokesperson from the company told BM that they are not disconnecting any SIM cards right now. “We will look into this case. We are actually carrying out camps for Aadhaar registration and we are not disconnecting any connections,” the spokesperson said.