Saturday 17 January 2015

Multipe identities

I have got into the habit of carrying my multiple identity cards in my purse along with my mugshots. In the US, all I had to do was to remember my social security number. Every thing was linked to it. Here there is PAN number for tax purposes. Then the voter's id for voting purposes. And now the Aadhaar supposedly for everything but for nothing. Finally, most of the forms require a photo so it is useful to carry photo every where.
Now that the government is trying to implement the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT), life has really become a case of multiple identity cards.
Yesterday I went to my LPG distributor to get my LPG connection linked to my aadhaar card. I filled the form and got my Adhaar card photocopied. However, there was a problem. The girl at the agency explained it very succintly as this:
"Ma'am, in those days when you got your connection all the names were entered incorrectly. So we will have to first correct your name in the our records. You need to fill the Know Your Customer form."
"But I did it couple of years back."
"You have to do it everytime some thing has to be changed in our records."
The KYC form required an address proof. My Aadhaar card has my old address and after making one attempt to change it, I kind of gave it up.  So  I whipped out my voter's id which has the new address and put that in. The form also required a photo so I pulled one out of my purse.
I do not know whether my LPG connection will be linked to the aadhar card or not. I met my colleague outside the shop. She had filled the form but there was a problem. She did not know what the problem was. She was frazzled. That is when I decided. If it is not linked after all this trouble, I am going to give up my subsidy. I cannot deal with this anymore.
On the other hand, maybe it is the clever ploy by the government to make us give up our subsidy.

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