the goan I network
MARGAO
The Navelim Civic and Consumer Forum has urged the Commissioner, Labour & Employment to withdraw the condition making Aadhar number mandatory for activation of existing employment registration card as well as for new registrations.
While demanding with the Labour Commissioner to accept other valid documents like voters card, driving license, passport, birth certificate, PAN card and extend the last date for activation for existing card holders, for the benefit of candidates without Aadhar number, the Forum has warned of protest if no action is taken within 15 days.
In its petition, the Forum pointed out that many aspiring job seekers have complained that the office has made Aadhar number mandatory for activation of existing employment registration card as well as for new registration. “Refer your Notification 25/2/2019/LAB/77 published on Official Gazette of Govt. of Goa on 31/1/2019, which states that all existing employment card holders have to activate their registration online and Aadhar no. is mandatory, otherwise it will be invalid,” the Forum said.
Forum secretary Joseph Vaz said as per the Supreme Court Order dated September, 26, 2018, in Writ petition (Civil) No. 494 of 2012, Aadhar is mandatory only for filing of income tax returns (ITR) and allotment of Permanent Account Number (PAN) and not for anything else. Hence making Aadhar compulsory for any other purpose amounts to contempt of Supreme Court Order, he warned.
Inquiries by the Forum have revealed that the Labour department comes under the Central government and no permission has been obtained from the Centre for this exercise. Also, this whole exercise has been decided by the Personnel Department and not passed by the Law Department, the Forum added.
“By enrolling for jobs the candidates have no monetary benefits. Also if you seek Aadhar just to avoid duplicity and authenticity of data, as stated in your notification, you are sadly relying on the wrong card, since a lot of such illegal cases have risen up. In fact there are other better documents to prove the same, like the voters card, driving license, passport, birth certificate, PAN card etc,” Joseph added
Quoting Chapter VII of the National Employment Service Manual, Joseph pointed out that when an applicant produces an educational, discharge or service certificate, the name of the employment exchange, date of registration and registration number will be endorsed on its back using a rubber stamp.
