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HEADLINE
UIDAI sends notice to Airtel for alleged flouting of Aadhaar rules over opening payments bank a/c
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SUBHEAD / HIGHLIGHT
The UIDAI has slapped notices on Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank over its retailers allegedly opening payments bank accounts without taking "informed consent" of customers who go for Aadhaar-based mobile SIM verification.
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Updated: September 22, 2017, 11:03 IST
MAIN CONTENT

The UIDAI has slapped notices on Bharti Airtel and Airtel Payments Bank over its retailers allegedly opening payments bank accounts without taking "informed consent" of customers who go for Aadhaar-based mobile SIM verification.

The Aadhaar-issuing body, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), in the notices seen, stated that acts of not taking consent and informing the purpose of authentication was a violation of rules and punishable with financial penalties.

It also asked both Bharti Airtel and its payments bank entity to take immediate corrective measures and report back to the authority on the same.

Reached for comments, an Airtel spokesperson said the payments bank is fully compliant with RBI and UIDAI guidelines and follows a stringent customer onboarding process.

"Airtel Payments Bank accounts are opened only after explicit consent from the customer. We will continue to educate retailers and strengthen our process to ensure transparency to customers and compliance with regulation," the company said in an e-mail response.

The UIDAI in the notices stated that it has come to know that "Airtel retailers are allegedly opening Airtel payments Bank account at the time of performing Aadhaar e-KYC verification without informing the purpose of e-KYC and also without taking informed consent of the customer".

Also, certain complaints were made to UIDAI alleging that Airtel opened payments bank account without approval and the said account was then linked for receiving LPG subsidy.

The UIDAI is learnt to have said such acts violated specific sections of Aadhaar Act which require entities to mandatorily obtain consent of an individual before collecting authentication related information, and also inform them about the purpose of the authentication. When contacted, UIDAI spokesperson refused to comment on the matter.

In November 2016, Airtel Payments Bank had rolled out banking services in Rajasthan, becoming the first payments bank to go live in the country.
Payments banks can accept deposits and savings bank deposits from individuals and small businesses, up to a maximum of Rs 1 lakh per account.
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SOME COMMENTS ON THIS POST
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→ COMMENT 1) B Mohan Kumar • 2 months ago
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In Bangalore, the Airtel showroom asked us to pay 100/- as -part of the Aadhaar number linking to the mobile #. When asked why this charge ? "They said that this will appear as a credit in your Airtel account / wallet. This they mentioned was part of the process of linking Aadhaar to Mobile #.
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→ COMMENT 2) Why AADHAAR Failed • 2 months ago
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When your bank account gets looted via aadhaar pay, you will call 1947, wait for 3 hours to get connected, the call center folks will simply ask you to visit aadhaar enrollment center, waiting list being 3 months, you will bribe 1000 INR and get an appointment with aadhaar enrollment center to resolve aadhaar misuse, they will ask you to email help at uidai dot gov dot in, you will send 10 emails in 10 days and then get a generic mail, asking you to specify all your details including preferred condom brand, etc, you will respond with all details, you will follow up for 3 more days, then you will get a generic FINAL response, "Please lock your bio-metrics in UIDAI , Jai Hind!", after that even if you send 100 emails you will NOT get any response. You lock your bio-metrics, the criminal go to an aadhaar enrollment center, unlock your bio-metrics using stolen fingerprint and keep on looting your hard earned money.
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→ COMMENT 3)
Why AADHAAR Failed • 2 months ago
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Link aadhaar with everything 2. Your aadhaar has been deactivated til you voluntarily give DNA and pay $100 as DNA extraction fees 3. Your aadhaar is deactivated till voluntarily sleep with aadhaar mongers and satisfy them completely 4. Your aadhaar is deactivated till you donate eye/kidney/liver/pancreas You will not be able to refuse once you link aadhaar with everything else, since once aadhaar gets deactivated your bank, mobile, internet, property, gas, electricity access will be blocked. Stop linking aadhaar with anything else now, apply Fevicol in both thumbs before you are forced to give fingerprint, without bio-metrics aadhaar is just a piece of paper. Jai Hind.