Government officials are allegedly collecting `10 to `150 for issuing an Aadhaar Card in villages under R Udayagiri block in Gajapati district.
Though higher authorities have informed about the illegal act, yet no action has been taken.
“While Aadhaar Card is a necessity to avail Government helps, and in some cases, it has been made mandatory, people are lining up before concerned officials to get such cards. Taking advantage of this, concerned officials are asking for `10 to `150 for issuance of a card,” alleged locals.
Officials shrewdly announce five days to prepare 1,000 cards in a gram panchayat while only 20 cards can be prepared for day as per Government norm.
When they come to panchayat offices to take photos, they prepare three-four cards and start taking pleas of machine snag and time limit. They ask villages to come in the night. Then, they demand `100 to `150 per Aadhar Card.
On October 14 night, the officials collected about `10,000 from 70 persons.
On Tuesday, people of Tikamal village had lined up each with `100 to get Aadhaar Cards but they had return as officials didn’t turn up.
People of different villages under Sabarapali and Anagha gram panchayats have made such allegations.
People have demanded that the district Collector take stringent action soon against the officials looting them.