Belagavi cook’s Aadhaar records him as ‘not alive’

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Roshan has ordered an inquiry following a complaint by the victim. He also promised to mutate all relevant records by working with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

Ganapati Kakatkar, a cook in Savgaon in Belagavi district of Karnataka, has complained to the district administration that he has been recorded as ‘not alive’ in various government records, and asked officials to rectify the mistake.

In August 2023, Mr Kakatkar noticed that he was no longer receiving government benefits. The attendant at the village fair price shop refused him rations, his bank accounts began closing, and applications for facilities for small farmers were rejected by the Agriculture Department. The registrar’s office informed that the software refused to register land in his name.

It took Mr Kakatkar a month to realise what had happened.

A lady in the tahsildar office noticed that his Aadhaar card had recorded him as not alive, he told reporters on January 7. He recalled that a data entry operator at the circle revenue had wrongly entered his Aadhaar number into the records of his grandfather who had died in 1975. “This was done in 2022. But he did not notice it early enough to seek rectification. A letter he wrote to UIDAI was not accepted as a formal application,” he said.

The complaint filed with the Deputy Commissioner’s office stated that all his records, including State and Central Government records, were recording that he was no longer alive. Mr Kakatkar appealed to the DC to help him out by changing the records.

He said that months were spent in trying to seek help from government offices. He approached the office of the tahsildar who had no idea what had gone wrong. A letter sent to the Central Government was of no help. An RTI application was returned saying the tahsildar’s office had no relevant records to share.

Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Roshan has ordered an inquiry following a complaint by Mr Kakatkar. He also promised to mutate all relevant records by working with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).