Ghaziabad: Two unauthorised Aadhaar enrolment centres , operating in Vijay Nagar and Sihani Gate areas, were busted on Tuesday. A team headed by sub-divisional magistrate of Ghaziabad raided the two shops and seized 488 Aadhaar cards.

SDM Vivek Mishra said, “The first raid was conducted at a shop located near Samrat Chowk in Vijay Nagar. The centre owner, Raj Kumar Gupta, did not have any permission from the government to run it. We seized 437 cards from the shop and sent them to the agency concerned for their verification. We suspect the involvement of some local officials in this racket.”

A serpentine queue was found at the centre for getting their names enrolled for the service. The staff was also found to be charging Rs 200 each from the applicants for the service, which is otherwise free.

The second raid was conducted at a shop in Nandgram and the owner, Nirdosh Tyagi, failed to produce any authorisation letter. As many as 51 cards were seized from the shop, the official added.

The SDM said, according to rules, enrolment centres could run only from designated banks, post offices and from the premises of government offices. The raiding team have filed complaints at respective police stations against the owners of the two centres and based on that FIRs have been registered accordingly.

