JOIN USThe Chief Electoral Officer on Thursday clarified that there was no bar on Aadhaar registration after his earlier directives led to confusion and stalled the process through the day. The officer, however, asked elected representatives, corporators and politicians to keep off the process.
The Chief Electoral Officer had on Wednesday imposed certain restrictions on Aadhaar enrolment in the State, triggering confusion among the officials and people alike. Several applicants who went to the registration centres on Thursday were turned away since the enrolment officers lacked clarity on the issue.
A senior official at the Chief Electoral Officer’s office said corporators and politicians in some areas tried to gain mileage ahead of the Assembly elections by deploying their men to distribute application forms and help applicants obtain necessary documents for the enrolment. “With the election code of conduct in place, politicians cannot gain mileage out of a government programme,” he said.
Chief Electoral Officer Anil Kumar Jha told Deccan Herald that there cannot be a blanket ban since the registration process was part of an ongoing scheme of the Central government. “We want to ensure that the programme continues without political interference,” he said.
The guidelines issued on Wednesday stated that for the ongoing schemes where beneficiaries needed to be selected, no new selections would be made during the period when the model code of conduct was in place. Collecting applications or sanctioning fresh cases under various development corporations of the State government is completely prohibited during this period. This created confusion at the Aadhar enrolment centres.
The Unique Identification Authority of India’s (UIDAI) regional office on Race Course Road was flooded with calls seeking clarity on the issue. However, it took a lot of time for the UIDAI and the State e-governance officials to decode the guidelines.
Padma S, a resident of Mallathahalli in the Rajarajeshwarinagar Assembly constituency, said: “I went in the afternoon to enrol along with my son at the centre located near my house. I was asked to come back after four days.” Veerendra, who went for enrolment in Koramangala along with his family, said: “Officials were not sure about how to go about and they asked us to come the next day.”
Flip-flop
-People were turned away at registration centres
- Officials had no clarity on the directives
-Elected representatives told not to meddle with the registration for electoral gains