It has been reported in the media that more than 200 centres have been opened in Mysore district and anyone can go there and obtain Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Number.
I visited to the Aadhaar centre at Mahajana College recently to get my Aadhaar number and I found that it was a centre of confusion and chaos. Getting accurate information was difficult because different people gave different answers. When I first went (on Monday) with my application form, I was given a number 6 and asked to come at 9 AM on Wednesday. I was specifically told that I would be the 6th person to be processed on Wednesday. We were also told that supporting documents (such as voter ID, PAN card) will be scanned by them and so we took it that submitting their xerox copies with the application forms was not necessary. But when I went at 9 AM on Wednesday, the person in charge sang a different tune. He said that people would be processed in the order in which they handed in the applications on Wednesday. My number 6 had no value. He also would not accept the application forms without the xerox copies. I did not argue with him since I had come early and happened to have the xerox copies and I thought I would be processed quickly.
But I soon realized I was wrong. The applications were not being processed in the order in which they were submitted and people who came later (especially one person who claimed he was a journalist and had to be processed first) were breaking the queue and were getting processed earlier than me. It was only when law-abiding citizens like me got fed up and started screaming that we got processed. Even then, it took a very long time because the person typing in my details could not get anything right and had to be replaced by a more competent person.
My friends tell me the situation is not better in other Aadhaar centres. Based on our experience, we have some suggestions to streamline the Aadhaar process.
1. The centres should be manned by trained and competent people. They should be monitored to make sure that they act professionally and the public is not harassed.
2. There should be signs telling the public where blank forms and information can be obtained.
3. When a person comes in with a filled application form, his name should be entered in a book along with the seniority number given for any day he chooses. He should be given a token with that number and date and told exactly what documents to bring. No xeroxes are necessary since the documents are scanned anyway.
4. When the centre opens at 9 AM, token numbers along with the table number where the person has to go should be called out loud in order and the corresponding names processed. People will know that no one jumping the queue. Since it takes about 15 minutes for processing a person, people can figure out when their turn will come and will not waste time waiting.
P.M.Bhat, Mysore Grahakara Parishat