Aadhaar Applicants Line Up For Hours Ahead of 31 March Deadline

Anxious applicants throng to Pragati Maidan Aadhaar center.

The crowd swells outside the Regional Aadhaar Center at Paragati Maidan Metro Station in New Delhi

(Photo: Rahul Nair/The Quint)

Bablu Kumar and his nephew Harsh have travelled to Delhi from Aligarh to get their Aadhaar registration done. Bablu says he tried to get Harsh enrolled in Aligarh itself. “We applied around 4-5 times there. But his name is not reflected on the card; it is incomplete. After running from pillar to post so many times, we were told that our work will only be done in Delhi.”

When Bablu reached the Regional Aadhaar Centre outside the Pragati Maidan metro station in New Delhi at 5 am, there were already hundreds of people there. The large crowd had gathered to collect the tokens that are issued at 8:30 am on a first come, first serve basis.

With the 31 March deadline to link Aadhaar cards looming ever so close, many Delhiites are scurrying to their nearest Aadhaar centers to either enroll for UID, or to make corrections in their Aadhaar details.

All Roads Lead to Pragati Maidan

However, as private Aadhaar centres shut shop in Delhi, most applicants have been directed to the Regional Aadhaar Centre at Pragati Maidan. Applicants claim they have been doing multiple rounds at this centre, yet their work keeps getting delayed. The Pragati Maidan centre issues around 150 tokens a day, which takes up the whole day to process.

One of the officials at the centre told The Quint, on condition of anonymity, that the employees at the centre were working hard to accommodate the rush.

We are trying to accommodate as many applicants as we can. We have even opened extra counters and are issuing around 250 tokens so that we can clear out the crowd.

Rahila Khan, an applicant, said that she waited for hours outside the Pragati Maidan centre, but to no avail. She said she had come from Okhla, where there are no Aadhaar centres.

When I came here the first time, I got the 300th token number and I was told to return by 7 pm. By then, around 212 tokens were processed. That is when the guard told me that only around 150 tokens are processed each day and that I need to stand in line from 4 in the morning if at all I want my rectifications done. 

Rahila Khan

On 7 March, the government indicated to the Supreme Court that they are open to extending the deadline for linking Aadhaar to bank accounts. The Centre said that since some more time would be needed to conclude the prolonged hearing in the Aadhaar case, the government may extend the deadline beyond 31 March.

Yet, such assurances don’t seem to slowdown the flow of applicants, for whom everything from money in the bank to rations from fair price shops depends on the UID number and biometrics.