Assam will stop issuing Aadhaar to adults, says Himanta, citing ‘saturation’ and ‘Bangladeshis’

Sarma said that Assam has 103% Aadhaar saturation, but that this is at 96% among the SC, ST and tea garden communities.

“We have taken this decision because, particularly in the last year, we are continuously apprehending Bangladeshis entering the country at the border. Yesterday, too, we pushed back seven of them. But we are not sure if we have been able to catch all of them. So we want to create a protection so that no one can enter Assam illegally and take an Aadhaar and live as Indian citizens. We want to completely close that door,” he said.

Sources in the central government said that for Aadhaar enrolments of all adults, the UIDAI accepts the documentation, but proceeds only after the respective state government approves the issuance of the Aadhaar card/number. The states undertake a physical verification of the address of adult applications at the time of application, and UIDAI has to wait for an approval from the states before issuing Aadhaar cards.

“He may be the first Chief Minister of any state to say that. But he is authorised not to issue any Aadhaar cards to adults,” the source said.

The number of applications from adults has reduced consistently over the years since most states have reached saturation coverage. “It is down to just a few thousand every month,” the source said. For minors, however, state government approval is not required. For them, only parental approval is required for Aadhaar issuance.

Sarma said this will become operational from the first week of October, and that members of SC, ST and tea garden communities will have an additional window for a year to apply for and receive Aadhaar cards. Once this window is closed, he said, Aadhaar cards will only be issued to people aged over 18 years in “rarest of rare cases”, and will only be issued by Deputy Commissioners after seeking reports from the district police and Foreigners’ Tribunals.

“If someone is left behind for whatever reason even after one year, they will have to apply to the relevant DC, and the DC will consult all stakeholders, like the Superintendent of Police, Foreigners Tribunal and will be able to give it in the rarest of rare cases,” he said.

Last month, following another cabinet meeting, Sarma had said that the cabinet was discussing a policy for new Aadhaar cards for adults in the state to be issued only by Deputy Commissioners. This, he said, was to prevent “infiltrators” from availing the document.

The existing process is that applications are made at Aadhaar centres, and a verification is done at the district level by ADCs or Circle Officers to check whether the applicant resides in the particular district.