Thousands of Aadhar cards found at scrap dealer in Jaipur

Thousands of Aadhar cards were sold to a scrap dealer in Jalupura area of Jaipur on Thursday.

Ward 76 councillor, Iqramuddin, who brought the issue to light said that around 2 pm he got information that thousands of Aadhar cards were sold as scrap at Choti Maszid in Jalupura area.

After reaching the spot, Iqramuddin found a sack full of Aadhar cards, most of them belonged to people living in the area. Around 12.30 pm, an unidentified person sold the cards to a scrap dealer, named Islam. However, Islam was not present at his shop and the unidentified person sold the cards to his son.

The Aadhar cards were underneath old newspapers, the scrap dealer’s son alerted neighbours after spotting them. “It was sold at Rs 8- 10 per kilo. The sack carrying the cards weighed 20 kg,” the councillor said.

Iqramuddin said each Aadhar card had Rs 5 postal stamp on it, which mean they were to be dispatched. The postal stamps had Jaipur General post office stamp and were dated between January 2017 and March 2018.

“I called a few persons, whose details were there on the Aadhar card and found that they had applied for it a year ago but had not received till date,” he said.

“Confidential details of individuals could be misused. Thousands of people would have been deprived of benefits linked with Aadhar. This shows the government’s insensitivity,” he said.

Iqramuddin said that people from the department of information and technology had come and tried to take the Aadhar cards but the locals refused to give it and demanded police action against the person responsible.

Additional director, UID project, Hansraj Yadav said, “The distribution of Aadhar card is done by the postal department. This is a serious issue and we have started the inquiry. The issue will be taken up with the postal department and action will be taken against the person responsible.”

“The issue demands departmental enquiry but if required a police complaint will be lodged,” Yadav said.

“It seems the Aadhar cards were misplaced. Around 2,000 Aadhar cards of people living in the same locality were found, which were to be distributed. We have informed the postal department,” Jalupura police station, station House officer Likhma Ram said. The police have not registered any complaint yet, he added.

First Published: Jun 14, 2018 21:30 IST