A surprisingly large number of people are registered with January 1 as their date of birth (DoB) in a village each in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The reason for this? A technical error with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) initiative.
Even as the government argues in the Supreme Court for identifying more and more people with the Aadhaar card, this error has come to light in two villages.
A number of people in Pabupadia village in Pokhran of Jaisalmer district have complained that they were registered as having been born on January 1, the Times of India reported. A total of 250 people are registered in the village with Jan 1 as their DoB, according to Aadhaar records.
The date of birth data is collected by e-Mitra centres set up by the Rajasthan government to help people avail government schemes. The goof-up has now led to allegations of carelessness and ‘cheating’ against these centres.
“This has happened due to the carelessness of e-Mitra managers. When this was brought to their notice, forget taking action, the officers did not even discuss the issue,” a villager told the paper.
The Sub-Divisional Officer (SDO) of Pokhran, Mool Singh Rajawat, admitted to the paper that he had received complaints regarding the irregularity. “Generally, if you do not fill the date of birth column, the date is recorded as January 1. Later, corrections are made based on information and supporting documents,” he told the paper.
A similar irregularity has also surfaced in Kanjasa village of Jasra block in Allahabad district.
“Nearly 1000 (of the 5000) residents have complained about faulty entries of their date of birth. The odd thing is that the date printed on all these cards is identical – January 1 – with variations in the years of birth,” the Block Development Officer, Neeraj Dubey, told PTI.
Dubey further told PTI that he has ordered an inquiry. He too said that there was speculation that the date is being assigned to people who are not aware of their actual date of birth.
However, some people who had provided the information along with documents too have been victims of the discrepancy.
“Once the inquiry is complete and accountability is fixed, suitable action will be taken against those responsible for the massive goof up,” the BDO told PTI. He further clarified that those who have been affected by the goof-up will also be provided with new Aadhaar cards with their correct details.
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