Operator Suspended, Fined in Aadhaar Enrolment Case

Hyderabad: An Aadhaar enrolment officer at the MEE SEVA Centre in Kapra municipality office was suspended for one year and fined Rs 50,000 following a complaint by Umesh Kumar, a resident of Dammaiguda. The officer, Nagaraju Gundala, was found guilty of overcharging and violating multiple provisions of the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations, 2016.

Umesh Kumar and his wife had visited the centre to enrol their daughter for Aadhaar. They were trying to register her under her mother's name. Despite carrying the necessary documents — the Aadhaar card of the mother, the birth certificate of the child, and Umesh Kumar's Aadhaar card – the operator demanded an additional affidavit, ostensibly to pocket `300. When Umesh Kumar protested, the operator rudely dismissed their documents and ordered the family to leave the line.

Infuriated by the disregard for rules, Umesh Kumar lodged a formal complaint in February. The subsequent RTI reply, dated March 22, 2024, revealed the action taken against the errant operator.

The RTI response from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Regional Office, Hyderabad, confirmed that the operator from the enrolment agency Electronic Service Delivery (Mee Seva) had breached standards, guidelines, and data quality processes. In addition to the suspension and financial penalty, Nagaraju Gundala's machine ID was deregistered.

Though Umesh Kumar was relieved by the action taken, he remains sceptical about the enforcement of such rules across all centres. "While it's reassuring that the authorities have acted on my complaint, this incident highlights a broader issue of accountability and transparency in public service delivery," he told Deccan Chronicle.