PSU Banks Force Staff to Get 16 People a Day to Enrol for Aadhaar

A letter from the a public sector banks to its employees warned them of salary-cuts if they didn’t meet the target.

Right to privacy is central to constitutionality of the Aadhaar programme.

(Photo: The Quint)

In a bid to bolster Aadhaar enrolment, several public-sector banks, upon the direction of the the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), have reportedly warned their employees of coercive action if they fail to not enrol a minimum of 16 persons a day into the Aadhaar programme, The New Indian Express reported.

Some of these actions even include salary-cuts.

According to TNIE, UCO Bank (Jodhpur zone) had issued a letter dated 25 May to its employees in all branches, which said: “You are instructed that you must meet the target of enrollment of 16 Aadhaar, otherwise the penalty imposed by the Unique Identification Authority of India will be deducted from your salary.”

The letter, which TNIE claimed it accessed, seemed to be following the directive of the MeitY, which had earlier said that all “financial disincentives shall be payable” if banks failed to meet the target of 16 enrolments a day.

This letter had reportedly been sent to the heads of all public and private-sector banks on 15 April, who were given a deadline of 31 May to meet the mentioned targets.

SK Patni, the deputy zonal head of UCO Bank (Jodhpur), admitted to TNIE that the letter was issued, but claimed that it was only a “heads up” and not a real warning. He also said that the employees had no real reason to complain since the UIDAI pays bank employees a certain percentage of money per enrolment.

The order had reportedly come from the top bosses, The New Indian Express reported.

The higher authorities are asking us to achieve the target after our working hours else they will write negative comments in our appraisal. So, after our regular banking hours, we are forced to stay back. We feel like being reduced to a telemarketer for UIDAI rather than a banker. 

An official of the State Bank of India to <i>The New Indian Express</i>

This directive goes against the Supreme Court’s earlier verdict that Aadhaar can’t be enforced.

(With inputs from The New Indian Express)