It appears that the much hyped biometric system of registration of Char Dham yatris is for name sake only. The normal practices of biometric system like taking thumb impressions and iris images are not being followed at the registration counters for the Char Dham yatris.
Taking a lesson from last year’s disaster when many dead bodies of pilgrims remained unidentified due to lack of proper registration mechanism, the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) decided to introduce the Biometric system of registration of Yatris this year. The UTDB gave the task to Trilok Security System India Private limited (TSSIPl) which operates such systems at Tirupati, Hyderabad, Bangalore, New Delhi, Katra and Ajmer. The company has opened counters at Rishikesh, Haridwar, Narsan, Guptkashi and Janakichatti. The counters at Badrinath, Chinyalisaur, Dobatta, Gangotri, Soneprayag and Govindghat would also be opened soon.
The counters are open from 5 am to 10 pm and an online registration is also expected to start on May 7. Those willing to apply online would have to pay a fee of Rupees 50. When this correspondent visited the counter at the Rishikesh bus stand some pilgrims mostly from Gujarat were seen on the counter. Badri Bhai a pilgrim from Gujarat said that he thought his thumb impression and picture of eye (iris) would be captured along with the photograph for the biometric registration but only photos are being taken at the counters. He raised apprehension at the quality of the system adopted here.
The in charge of biometric verification centre Amit Kumar said that after capturing the picture and inputting the information like Name, address, phone number, registration of vehicle number and place of pilgrimage a bar code is generated. Every pilgrim is given a card on which a bar code is pasted. The Joint director of UTDB AK Dwivedi told The Pioneer that verification centres opened at Soneprayag, Jankichatti and Guptkashi would track the movement of pilgrims on the Yatra circuit.
Interestingly the TSSIPl is charging no money from the government and pilgrims for the biometric registration. In a novel attempt the company would use the space available at the back of registration card for commercial advertisement.