TNN | Feb 7, 2012

KARWAR: The ‘untraced’ addresses of the Aadhaar card holders in Coastal taluks of Uttara Kannada district has landed the postal authorities in a piquant situation. About 7,000 Aadhaar cards are lying in the various post offices in Karwar, Ankola, Kumta Honnavar and Bhatkal talukbecause the addresses were not traced.

This has led to the suspicion that Aadhaar cards were registered with fake or dummy addresses in Uttara Kannada. Two days ago, the postal department issued a release asking people who had registered for Aadhaar card, but have not yet received it to contact the nearest post office to get them.

The officials who had associated with registration of such cards say they had registered according to the guidelines issued by the government. But there are allegations that the procedure itself was wrong as a mere bank passbook was treated as ‘address proof’ and it was not difficult to open an account in the banks.

Nagaraj Joshi, a social activist, points out the officials who were appointed in the registration centre to verify the address proof were either outsiders or had no knowledge of the persons who were ‘producing’ different proofs. They just signed it and some people must have exploited it, he said.

Dattaram, a resident of Karwar, said that authorities should have taken care while issuing the cards in sensitive areas like coastal belts. But clarifying the stand of postal department P L Hadaginal, Superintendent of posts, Karwar said there were many cases where people registered for Aadhaar in one place and they work in another place. This had happened in other district too. To inform the people and speed up the delivery of the cards they issued the release, he said.

Joshi alleges that non delivery of the cards was not due to the absence of the person, but due address could not be traced. So the entire lot should be withheld and an investigation should be ordered, he added.