‘Cyber cafes fleecing people over PAN-Aadhaar linking’: Locals allege nexus with govt centres

The allegations came after “Belagavi One,” “Dharwad One,” and “Gadag One”, which are authorised by the government, referred people to cyber cafes and other private firms for PAN-Aadhaar linking

Belagavi: Several residents of districts in north Karnataka have alleged a nexus between government-authorised service providers and private cyber centres in linking the Permanent Account Number (PAN) to Aadhaar cards.

As the government had earlier set a deadline of March 31 for linking Aadhaar and PAN cards to keep bank accounts active, hundreds thronged to government-authorised centres to get it done. (HT Archives)

The allegations came after “Belagavi One,” “Dharwad One,” and “Gadag One”, which are authorised by the government, referred people to cyber cafes and other private firms for PAN-Aadhaar linking. At these private centres, people alleged, ₹500 to ₹1,000 has been charged, either as a consultant fee or as a fine for failure to link the documents.

As the government had earlier set a deadline of March 31 for linking the cards and keeping bank accounts active, hundreds thronged to “one centre”. However, these customers are being directed to the private centres claiming that “one centre” is facing internet connectivity issues.

Meanwhile, the Union government has extended the deadline for linking the two cards by three months i.e June 30 and clarified no fine is to be paid in case the person fails to link them. Despite the extension the cyber centres are forcing people to get the cards linked early, else they had to pay fine.

An employee at “Belagavi One” centre at Hanuman Nagar in Belagavi said that most of the time servers remain down and even if accessed it would be very slow for which they are recommending people to the cyber centres which have faster network. “It’s not only the problem with centres at Belagavi but also other centres in north Karnataka. The private online service providers attending the work for speed network connectivity,” he said.

Another employee working with “Belagavi One” said the centres in the state are connected with 3G network where access is very slow. “People need not to pay additional sum if the centres were connected to high-speed 4G network.”

At the cyber centres the linking process continued and customers were charged additionally for photocopies of the documents. “As per the order of the government we are collecting fine amount of ₹1,000 and ₹500 as service charge to link a card. Earlier, before the extension of the deadline we were told to collect ₹1,000 as fine with the same sum of service charges from April 1. Now we continued collecting the fine and the service charges fixed previously,” said an employee at a private online service provider at Hanuman Nagar in Belagavi. However, he refused to show the fine order copy.

A worker at another cyber online centre said, “We pay money to the “one centres” for referring customers to us.”

Due to heavy rush Kallappa Patil, residing at Uchagavi village in Belagavi taluk, situated 13km from Belagavi, along with his wife queued before the “Belagavi One” centre at Hanuman nagar at around 5 am and got linked his and his wife’s cards with nearby cyber center in the afternoon by paying ₹3,000. “I paid ₹3,000 to get linked mine and my wife’s cards. However, the cyber online centre has not issued me the cash receipt for the payment,” Patil said.

Pavitra Jadav working in private firm in Gokak town said she has opened a zero balance saving account in a bank by paying just spending ₹100 and linked my Aadhaar card to PAN in 2018. However, when checked about two weeks ago, link was disconnected due to unknown reasons. The banker advised to get re-linked from the cyber centers to enjoy the bank’s facility. She added that she was shocked when told about the fine and the service charge. “The bank didn’t told me the reason for disconnecting my link, for which I was forced to pay the sum of fine and the service charge not for my mistake, “ she said.

Rajani, a house maid in Sadashiva nagar in Belagavi is one among those who opened a accounts when mass accounts were opened after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi had emphasised of everyone having own account.

Rajani who works in four houses earn around ₹10,000 a month has saved a small amount in her zero balance account said: “Not spending a single rupee myself and many mades have opened the accounts, now we paid ₹ 1,500 to link the cards to keep activated the accounts. A few who don’t have that much sum have got closed their accounts”.

Belagavi Regional Commissioner Mahantesh Hiremath said that he instructed the deputy commissioners of the division to verify the businesses of “One Centre” over server delay and cancel the licences of the cyber centres collecting fine and heavy sum of service charges illegally.