aadhaar-cardAn overview of recent news related to Aadhaar, which points towards the increase in government schemes being linked to the scheme, and issues faced by citizens:

June 27, 2016: PTI reports that A PIL filed in the Bombay High Court, asking for the quashing of an order of the Maharashtra Government which made it mandatory for children to submit the Aadhaar card for school admission, has been dismissed, after the state government said the order wasn’t mandatory. The PIL argued that the order was against a Supreme Court order which said that the government cannot make the Aadhaar mandatory for most activities.

June 28th, 2016: Rajasthan Patrika reports that more than the fixed charge is being charged for the Aadhaar card printing

June 28th, 2016: Deccan Herald reports that Indian Oil corporation, BPCL and HPCL have sent messages to citizens that those who don’t submit their Aadhaar cards will lose oil subsidy.

June 29, 2016: The Hindu reports how ration shop employees told citizens that their supplies will be cut if Aadhaar cards of all family members aren’t linked to the ration cards. 9.39 lakh cards have been linked so far. Ration shops weren’t accepting Aadhaar authentication printed online. The collector now says there is no deadline for linking ration card to Aadhaar.

June 30, 2016: HuffingtonPost reports that Jaspal S Sandhu, the Secretary of the UGC sent a letter to Vice Chancellors of all universities, making it mandatory for the use of Aadhaar for “disbursement of all government subsidies, scholarships and fellowships“. This also appears to be in violation of the SC order.

June 30, 2016: The Hindu reports that Newborns in five government hospitals in Hyderabad will link Aadhaar with birth certificates. The program is expected to be expanded to the remaining government and private hospitals as well. No iris or biometrics of the newborn will be taken, but they’ll take a photo along with authentication of the parents. Re-enrolment using biometrics will be possible after the kids reach the age of 5.

July 1, 2016: Times of India reports that NITI Aayog is consulting states and NGO’s regarding tracking malnutrition schemes on a platform which will be linked to Aadhaar cards.

July 1, 2016: Dainik Bhaskar reports that in Mirzapur, the postal department isn’t delivering Aadhaar cards, and banks aren’t opening accounts without Aadhaar cards.

July 02, 2016: The Financial Express reports that the average balance in Jan Dhan accounts has more than doubled from Rs 795 in September 2014 to Rs 1735 in May 2016 according to IndiaSpend. This is because the Aadhaar-based DBT scheme transferred Rs 61,284 crore into these accounts in FY16. Close to 60% of all 24 crore ration cards in India are linked to Aadhaar numbers. Only a quarter of 5 lakh ration shops have biometric readers.

July 03, 2016: The Tribune reports that all land records, urban or rural, will be linked with Aadhaar, under the “Digital India Land Record Modernisation Programme”. Chandigarh will be the first Union Territory where urban land records will be linked to the Aadhar number.

July 04, 2016: Economic Times reports: by the end of 2015, 62.7 crore people above the age of 18 had received Aadhaar cards, around 101% of the adult population for that year. Delhi has 127% Aadhaar enrollment.