Make Aadhaar registrations foolproof: L-G to Delhi govt.

Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena on Friday wrote to the Delhi government saying Aadhaar card registrations must be made “foolproof”, as illegal immigrants obtaining the document could have “wider national security ramifications”.

In the letter to Chief Secretary Dharmendra, Ashish Kundra, the L-G’s Principal Secretary, said that Mr. Saxena has been apprised of several instances of illegal immigrants managing to secure Aadhaar on the basis of forged documents. “This has a cascading impact wherein such individuals are able to secure documents that establish nationality, i.e. passports and voter identity cards,” the letter read.

The L-G had written a similar letter to the Chief Secretary and Delhi Police Commissioner Sanjay Arora in November last year, citing a “sudden spurt in the number of illegal immigrants” in the national capital. Mr. Saxena had asked the police chief to conduct a “special drive for the identification of illegal immigrants and take further action in coordination with Central agencies”.

‘Adverse impact’

In his Friday letter, Mr. Saxena said that having an Aadhaar card allows illegal immigrants to avail of benefits under various welfare schemes run by the Central and State governments. He added that the card also allows such people to “secure jobs, depressing local labour markets and adversely impacting local employment”.

The L-G directed the government to take a “stringent approach”, particularly with respect to field-level implementation, monitoring and verification procedures.

Mr. Dharmendra was also asked to ensure that “clear instructions are issued to all Registrars to strictly comply with the provisions of the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016 and switch to an in-house model of enrolment within two months”. He was also directed to prepare a comprehensive detail of all the Aadhaar enrolment centres set up by the Delhi Government by July 15.

In case an illegal immigrant is found to have obtained an Aadhaar card from a centre run by the Delhi government, strict action would be taken against the errant officials, said Mr. Saxena.

Karat writes to Shah

Meanwhile, senior CPI(M) leader Brinda Karat on Friday wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah regarding the “blatant violation of human rights and harassment and extortion” in the ongoing drive to identify illegal immigrants. “In the process, genuine Indian citizens are being targeted on the grounds of language and religion,” she said.