Common service centres to restart Aadhaar related work within a week

People in rural areas will soon be able to access Aadhaar-related services at the common service centres following the UIDAI's authorisation to these centres to resume such services, a senior official said.

Common service centres (CSC) stopped providing Aadhaar-related services after the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) withdrew authorisation from them following debates around data security of the 12-digit unique identifier.

"UIDAI has authorised CSCs to start printing of Aadhaar cards. Users will be charged standard fees as prescribed by UIDAI. This work is expected to start in a week," CSC e-Governance Services CEO Dinesh Tyagi told PTI.

There are 3.9 lakh village level entrepreneurs (VLE) that are running common service centres in rural areas across the country.

VLEs provide government services like train ticket booking, passport application, birth certificate, registration for Ayushman Bharat scheme etc.

"CSCs will also be able to update demographic details of Aadhaar users like address, photo etc. This work is expected to start by the end of this month," Tyagi said.

Apart from CSCs, people can access Aadhaar-related services at bank branches, post offices and UIDAI authorised centres located in government premises.

Earlier, CSCs were also allowed to process Aadhaar enrollment as well but it stopped in September 2017 after privacy and data security-related debates in the country.

VLEs had threatened to protest against the government if they are not allowed to conduct Aadhaar-related work.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had assured them that they will soon be allowed to do Aadhaar related processes.

"We are gradually starting Aadhaar related works. I am hopeful more projects will come to CSC," Tyagi said.