Aadhaar records have incorrectly marked January 1 as the birth date for around 1,000 of the 5,000-odd people in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanjasa village, PTI reported on Tuesday. Following the large number of complaints, officials have ordered an investigation into the matter and assured the villagers they will rectify the mistake.
“Nearly 1,000 [of the 5,000] residents have complained about faulty entries [in their Aadhaar cards] of their date of birth. The odd thing is that the date printed on all these cards is identical – January 1 – with variations in the years of birth,” Neeraj Dubey, Jasra Block Development Officer told PTI.
Dubey said that some people suspected that the error was because of a default date being assigned to ones who did not know their birth dates, though some applicants who had submitted documents with their birth details were also issued with January 1 as a birth date.
“Once the inquiry is complete and accountability is fixed, suitable action will be taken against those responsible for the massive goof up,” he told PTI.
Apart from this development, claims of security breaches in Aadhaar and misuse of biometrics data have been in the news recently. In February, the Unique Identification Authority of India had suspended Axis Bank’s authentication services after allegations arose that biometrics data had been saved illegally. According to government data, the UIDAI has issued 112 crore Aadhaar numbers so far and has maintained that its biometrics database is tamper-proof.
The Supreme Court has been hearing a series of petitions regarding Aadhaar and the government making it compulsory to have such identification to avail of some schemes, including midday meals in some instances.
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