The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has issued a clarification on Wednesday that it has summoned 127 persons in Hyderabad for an enquiry into submission of false documents for the purpose of obtaining Aadhar number and also clarified that Aadhar is not linked to the National Registry of Citizens or even citizenship.
However, in the said notice/s, the residents in Hyderabad, 127 in number, were asked to appear before the Deputy Director on 20th February for a personal hearing. 12/n
— Aadhaar (@UIDAI) February 19, 2020
In a series of tweets put out by the authority, it clarified that it had received the information from the Hyderabad police regarding the arrests of a few individuals. The Regional Officer (RO) decided to summon these 127 individuals to conduct an enquiry. These cases are those that mostly pertain to illegal immigrants who have fraudulently obtained Aadhar cards.
The clarification came even as news reports have emerged that in the last two days, individuals in the city are receiving notices to appear before the UIDAI with their Aadhar cards to ascertain their citizenship status.
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The Hyderabad police had arrested two people from a Mee Seva centre located at Bhavani Nagar for assisting individuals in obtaining the Aadhar number illegally. These arrests happened in 2017.
The enquiry was to have been conducted on Feb 20, however this has now been postponed to May 2020.
THREAD: UIDAI did not follow due procedure & abused its powers. The result was (understandable) panic among people
First, @UIDAI has no power to verify citizenship. It has few powers to look into some cases of Aadhaar being granted incorrectly (rules 27 & 28) https://t.co/2QlzaOcwVJ
— Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) February 19, 2020
Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi jumped into the controversy and said that the Police cannot ask for Aadhar card details as it was illegal and also asked the Telangana police for details of the 127 persons. He specifically asked as to how many were Muslims and Dalits.