Bhatkal: Residents of Bhatkal taluk are facing severe difficulties in obtaining new Aadhaar cards and correcting essential details such as name, date of birth and address in existing Aadhaar records. With the beginning of the new year, long queues have become a daily sight outside the Bhatkal Post Office from the early hours of the morning, causing widespread inconvenience to the public.

Earlier, Aadhaar enrolment and correction services were available at the taluk administration’s Mini Vidhana Soudha building. However, the centre was shut down nearly a month ago. At present, the post office remains the only Aadhaar service centre in the entire taluk. Except on Sundays and public holidays, only 30 to 40 tokens are issued per day from Monday to Saturday, limiting access to the service.

People are arriving not only from Bhatkal town but also from various rural areas of the taluk in an attempt to secure a token. Once the weekly quota is exhausted, applicants are forced to wait until the following week to submit their requests. This situation has particularly affected daily wage earners, who are compelled to miss work and lose income while making repeated visits for Aadhaar-related services.

According to post office officials, Aadhaar enrolment and correction work is being managed by the existing staff, making it possible to process only 30 to 40 applications per day.

Earlier, Aadhaar holders were able to update their details online on their own or through cyber centres. However, the facility was discontinued following reports of misuse, resulting in increased hardship for the public.

Although staff have been trained to provide Aadhaar services at the gram panchayat level, operations have not yet begun. Members of the public have demanded that Aadhaar enrolment and correction facilities be restored at gram panchayat offices, as was done earlier, to ease the burden on rural residents. Affected citizens have urged public representatives and m of social organisations to take the issue seriously and ensure an early and effectivemembers solution.