Hyderabad: The swapping of biometrics in the Aadhaar card authentication process has emerged as the top violation. As many as 13,654 cases have been identified where the biometrics — finger prints or iris scans — of one person have been swapped with that of another.
In another major violation, agents are taking advantage of the provision that those who are ailing or have lost their eyesight need not give their biometrics. The card is issued based on other details. Over 2.72 lakh fake applications have been cancelled by the Unique Identification Authority of India.
Speaking to this newspaper, Mr M.V.S. Rami Reddy, deputy director-general, UIDAI, said 600 private agencies had been licenced to enrol applicants for Aadhaar cards.
Mr Rami Reddy said that if a father and son had enrolled together, the biometrics of the son was swapped with that of the father. “In a few cases it was done unintentionally, while in several others it was found to have been done deliberately. We have cancelled 13,654 cards so far,” he said.
In other cases, it was found that agents of the blacklisted Leasing and Financial Services Limited, in Karimnagar made money by forwarding applications of persons who they claimed were seriously ill, or had lost their eye sight and did not include the biometrics.
Over 6,000 such cards were made for beneficiaries to claim government benefits, he said. The fraud was detected during the authentication process, Mr Reddy said. The enrolment agency has to lock the applicant details with a security code and upload them to the authentication server.
The biometrics and other details are tallied with the rest of the cards. Unless the details are unique, the applications are rejected. “There is no scope for duplication,” Mr Rami Reddy said.
