In the national capital Delhi, you cannot register your marriage unless you have got your Aadhaar number with you. Yes, the state government has clearly declared that Aadhar card is compulsory for accessing various services in the state and similar to property registration, Aadhaar card is also mandatory for registering your marriage at the respective offices.
A newly married couple when went to a magistrate office in Delhi for registering their marriage, they were asked to produce Aadhar card in order to get their marriage certificate. The questions also rises here because according to UIDAI, enrolling for Aadhaar is not mandatory rather it is a voluntary based scheme but few states have made it compulsory for various schemes.
The government is issuing Aadhaar numbers free of cost to the people of the country but the employees making it are charging Rs. 20 each from each candidate. Gurmeet Singh S/O Harnaam Singh from Sherewala village of Punjab allegedly accused that residents from their village are paying Rs. 20 as a fees for enrollment to the workers. When he queried the concerned employee regarding that, they said that they had not received their salary for long time and they are charging this for their livelihood.
600 mn m-banking users to be linked with Aadhaar
The regulatory body of Unique Identification Number (UID or Aadhaar) UIDAI is mulling over to link 600 million m-banking users with Aadhaar. Nandan Nilekani, Chairperson, UIDAI said that there will be undulated result of this implementation on electronic and mobile commerce. UIDAI has so far issued few more than 25 crore Aadhaar numbers in the country but is keen to cover 60 crore people by 2014. Mr. Nilekani added that the aim is to install 10 lakh micro-ATMs in the country by 2014 to facilitate people with easy banking services especially those belonging to rural areas. He feels that the Aadhaar platform will facilitate the beneficiary of receiving benefits directly and will also eliminate any leakage involved in the whole process. News is also that soon a person with Aadhaar number will not need to input 4-digit ATM pin to withdraw cash from his/her account because the Finance Ministry has directed the banks to hurry up the work of installing biometric ATM in the country. In such type of ATMs, finger print or iris scan will be sufficient to take out cash from the machine. The government recently launched the Aadhaar based cash transfer scheme in 20 districts from January 1 and is aiming to cover the entire nation by next year. To lessen the load from the banks, private firms will be given the authority of managing and controlling these biometric ATMs
Aadhar card mandatory for new EPFO members
The central government has mandate for the new members of the Employee’s Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to provide their Aadhaar details. The employer will be responsible for providing Aadhar card details of new members. To improve the services of EPFO, the central government want to use Aadhaar number as Know Your Customer (KYC) form. The Aadhaar number of the present members of the EPFO will be collected in a definite period of time.
Central PF Commissioner Anil Swaroop issued a circular presenting an action plan to collect Aadhar card details of the EPFO members. The circular directs that all the regional offices to contact their local UIDAI officials to request for setting up of Aadhaar enrollment camps. District administration can also be contacted for this. According to the circular, members joining the EPFO on or after 1st March 2013 will essentially require to provide their Aadhaar number. The regional offices should inform the employers to gather Aadhaar number details of all their new members. Those who have not got their Aadhaar number should provide their enrollment number (EID) which will be updated to their Aadhaar number after receiving it.
The circular also directs to collect Aadhaar details of the present members by 30th June 2013. Before this the central government has taken the decision to link EPFO scheme based provident fund, pension scheme and other benefits with the direct cash transfer scheme. Under this Aadhaar number will be necessary to take out PF and pension money. The Aadhaar number has been made optional for the present members but can later be mandated in future.
The decision has been taken by surprise by the people especially the members because till now only 25 crore people have been issued Aadhaar numbers in the country and most of the people are still waiting to receive their Aadhar cards even after 10-12 months.