The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has asked the government departments, Ministries and State governments to ensure that no essential service or benefit should be denied to a genuine beneficiary for want of Aadhaar. The news has come as a relieving piece for countless people.
In a statement, the authority said, it has taken a serious note of some of the cases reported in media about the denial of essential services like hospitalisation or medical help. It said, such claims of denial are being investigated by the concerned agencies and strict action will be taken in case denial has occurred. It said, Aadhaar is meant to bring transparency and accountability in public service deliveries through effective use of technology and it should not be misused and made an excuse to any denial in the services.
The authority said, it will again write a letter to the Chief Secretaries of all the States and Union territories to ensure that Aadhaar Act is implemented for all the schemes at the ground level in service deliveries to beneficiaries so that no denial happens due to want of Aadhaar.
The UIDAI last week had clarified that the Plastic or PVC Aadhaar smart cards are often not usable as the QR code commonly becomes dysfunctional during such unauthorised printing at some vendor/shop. Also, there could be a possibility of sharing Aadhaar details (personal sensitive demographic information) without informed consent with some devious elements.
Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO, UIDAI said, “So-called Aadhaar Smart card is totally unnecessary and a waste as during such printing its QR code often becomes dysfunctional. The Aadhaar card or the downloaded Aadhaar card printed on ordinary paper or mAadhaar is perfectly valid for all kind of uses. “If a person has a paper Aadhaar card, there is absolutely no need to get his/her Aadhaar card laminated or obtain a plastic Aadhaar card or so called smart Aadhaar card by paying money. There is no concept such as smart or plastic Aadhaar card.”
In case a person loses his Aadhaar card, he can download his Aadhaar card free of cost from https://eaadhaar.uidai.gov.in. The print out of the downloaded Aadhaar card, even in black and white form, is as valid as the original Aadhaar letter sent by UIDAI. There is absolutely no need to print it on plastic/PVC card or get it laminated.
