People rush to collect tokens for Aadhaar

MANGALURU: It was an early rise for nearly 500 people in and around Puttur taluk of Dakshina Kannada district. They rushed to the head post office on Old Taluk Office Road as early as 6am to collect their token for Aadhaar registration. The post office doubles as Aadhaar enrolment and correction centre.
People of Puttur town were taken by surprise on seeing long queues outside the post office, and those standing in the queue started wondering if the office staff would actually give them tokens or they have fallen prey to a prank on April 1.

A woman standing in the queue said: “Tokens will be issued by the post office staff once the counter opens. The enrolment and correction are done as per serial numbers. Fearing that we may not get tokens, we reached the post office before 6am.”

Equipped with the token, people have to visit the post office on a particular date and time and get their Aadhaar-related work done. The post office can attend to around 20-25 people every day. Initially, the tokens were issued daily, and those who failed to get them had to return empty-handed. After seeing heavy rush for the tokens, the authorities in March decided to issue the tokens on one particular day in a month. With April 1 being the first the day of the new arrangement, a large number people assembled at the post office at the daybreak itself.

Jagadish Pai, senior superintendent of posts (Puttur post office), told reporters that the department did not face problems like in the previous months. “Everyone has been given a fixed date, and the time for Aadhaar enrolment. Fearing that people will not get tokens, they came in large numbers early in the morning. Despite being short-staffed, we tried our best to solve the problem. The next date of issuing tokens will soon be announced. The facility is also available at Sullia, Belthangady, Bantwal, Moodabidri and Karkala post offices of Puttur division,” he added.

Due to software issues in March, the department had stopped issuing Aadhaar cards. However, the problem has been rectified now.

Meanwhile on Sunday, the government extended the deadline for linking PAN with biometric ID Aadhaar by six months till September 30.