Dogs, trees and chairs have Aadhaar cards

BANGALORE: In hilarious slip-ups in the Aadhaar card enrolment
process, some cards have ended up with pictures of an empty chair, a
tree or a dog instead of the actual applicants.

Asked about the cases, where data collected from applicants were not
reflected on the cards, Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI)
deputy director general Ashok Dalwai said no system was foolproof.
"There have been some errors," he said.

"We had even come across an empty chair printed as the applicant's
photo on an Aadhaar card. This could have happened due to the
operator's mistake. We look for accuracy in the fingerprints and
photograph. The operator might have copied a wrong photo, but it may
have matched only because of a lack of clarity. To avoid such errors,
we have in place another team to go through the printed Aadhaar cards,
to check for manual duplication."

Acknowledging slip-ups in the Aadhaar enrolment process, UIDAI deputy
director general Ashok Dalwai told TOI there have been cases where an
operator's fingerprints had been registered instead of the
applicant's. "This could have happened while the operator was guiding
the applicant on where and how to put his finger during data
enrolment," he said.

"We have four attempts in which the right data has to be fed into the
system. In some cases, the operators have registered their own
fingerprints by mistake," he added.

In such cases, Aadhaar enrolment is rejected and the applicant
informed about the rejection. Such applicants have to undergo fresh
enrolment.

Dalwai said no one should apply more than once for an Aadhaar card
unless he/she receives a rejection letter from the UIDAI. "Please
don't reapply for the card," he said. "The applicant can reapply only
in the case of rejection of the accuracy of data and only on getting a
rejection letter. Otherwise, it's a waste of time for us and the
applicant."