NEW DELHI: Aadhaar body UIDAI is facing revolt from the government’s 3-lakh-strong rural outreach programme, Common Service Centres (CSCs), who are now threatening to go on a strike after being removed from the citizen-directory initiative.UIDAI this year has removed CSCs from carrying out Aadhaar registration and updation services, and has now come out with a tender to give the job to a large private operator (request for proposal was issued on October 3) who will be tasked with setting up ‘Aadhaar Seva Kendras’ (ASKs).“This is not fair to the CSCs who are working at the last-mile and providing a host of digital services in villages and smaller towns as part of the government’s national e-governance initiative. Our demand to reinstate CSCs for Aadhaar services has not yielded any result,” Dinesh Tyagi, CEO of CSC , told TOI. “If the stalemate continues, we will have no other option but to go on strike.” UIDAI, which issued a statement regarding the setting up of ASKs, did not answer specific queries on why the CSCs were being moved out from offering Aadhaar services. Tyagi said that the move is “unfortunate” since CSCs have helped enrol as many as 27 crore citizens into the Aadhaar directory.The Modi government has positioned the CSCs as an ambitious vehicle to drive digital services in rural areas. The CSC centres, which on an average employ 3-4 people, are playing a key role in the rollout of the government’s initiatives such as Ayushman Bharat and Digital India while also acting as banking correspondents where they help citizens in services such as loan application processing, disbursing Direct Benefit Transfer payouts, and selling mutual funds/pension-related products. The CSCs also provide video, voice and data services for e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, and entertainment.While UIDAI said that a recent judgement — in the Binoy Viswam case — required a shifting of enrolment/updation services, Tyagi denied there is such an order that seeks the removal of CSCs. Sources said that top officials of the IT Ministry, including Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, are being briefed of the rift.