GUWAHATI: Assam police have registered as an Offline Verification Seeking Entity (OVSE) with UIDAI to help detect fake or photocopied Aadhaar cards used to mislead the police.
Announcing this, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “ Today, Assam Police became the first State agency in North East to be registered as Offline Verification Seeking Entity (OVSE) under UIDAI.”
Why is it so important?
Assam is a border state sharing nearly 265 kilometres of border with the neighbouring country. Infiltration remains a major issue in Assam. The infiltrators use local touts to obtain fake Indian IDs, like Aadhaar cards, and travel or find jobs across the country. Detecting these fake Aadhaar cards has been difficult for security agencies so far.
The Aadhaar QR code carries an unforgeable digital seal, making it harder for criminals or illegal infiltrators to use a fake or photocopied Aadhaar card to mislead the police. The OVSE will also make police services such as tenant verification, character verification, passport verification, and arms license verification faster and simpler, CM Sarma added. Assam police is now the 3rd-largest police force nationally to be registered as OVSE.
CM Sarma said that large parts of Assam- hills, chars, border villages, etc.- don’t have fast internet. As an OVSE, a police patrol party can instantly verify someone’s credentials by scanning the QR code, with no need to depend on internet speed.
With this registration, Assam takes another step forward towards efficient, water-tight and people-friendly policing, CM Sarma added.
It should be mentioned that the Assam government has stopped issuing Aadhaar cards to anyone above 18 years of age. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma made this announcement at a press briefing in Dispur on June 13. The reason, he said, is straightforward. Assam has already achieved 100 per cent Aadhaar saturation. In some districts, saturation has exceeded that level, reaching 114-115 per cent. That extra percentage, the CM indicated, points to something deeply worrying.
This move aims to prevent Bangladeshi infiltrators from obtaining Aadhaar cards,” CM Sarma said. Security forces are capturing infiltrators regularly in the state. These infiltrators try to obtain Indian IDs like Aadhaar cards with the help of local touts to travel to other states of India. The Assam government says this move will curb the issue.
