Bhubaneswar: Although Aadhaar card registration is meant to be free, an enrolment centre in the Capital city is allegedly charging `50 each from the applicants for the purpose.
The illegal collection of fees at the computer centre-cum-Aadhaar enrolment centre, which is operating from Duplex-6 near Sailashree Vihar Square in Chandrasekharpur police limits, came to fore Friday after some applicants raised their voice against it.
According to sources, a large number of applicants, queued up at the enrolment centre to apply for Aadhaar card Friday, raised their voice against collection of `50 from each applicant for registration. However, the workers at the enrolment centre made it clear that their registration would not be completed unless they pay the fees. The workers made excuses that they were drawing their remuneration from the fees collected from the applicants.
Meanwhile, a female employee of the registration centre flew into rage and warned to close down the centre for the day if the applicants create ruckus. Subsequently, some of the applicants were forced to pay `50 each and applied for their Aadhaar cards.
In his defence, the owner of the computer centre, Sagar Sundar Sahu, said every Aadhaar enrolment centre in the capital are charging applicants between `50 and 200 for the services.
“We do not get any remuneration to run the enrolment centre. I have complained to the UIDAI many times in this regard. I have not even got any fund for opening the centre,” Sahu added.