Balangir, July 26: The drive to provide citizens of the country with unique identification cards may be a step in the right direction, but the people of Balangir are having to run helter skelter to have their names registered.

Bad infrastructure and an acute shortage of staff have been ailing the drive that began a month ago.

Official sources said the first phase of collection of data would be over in a few days. But all is not well. Residents of Balangir allege mismanagement and negligence on the part of the staff deputed at the data-collection centres.

In each municipal ward, schools have been identified as centres where the collection of data and photographing of the people of the area takes place. Each school is provided with about four counters where town residents submit their personal data and also have their photographs taken. Sources said that the process takes a lot of time and people have to wait in serpentine queues. Some alleged that they were not given acknowledgement slips during enumeration and therefore had to run from pillar to post to find their names. When they didn’t find their names at the centres they expected, they had to travel from one centre to another.

Sadananda Mishra of Ward No. 20 said that he was not given any acknowledgement slip. He had expected to find his name on the rolls at Sagarpada school where he casts his vote. “I was surprised to find that my name didn’t feature in the list. The officials there sent me to another centre. I found my name at the centre which is quite a long distance from my home.”

Another person of the same ward said he had already waited two days but his turn had not come. Jagdish Naik of Indra Nagar said that he and his family had been coming to the centre for the last two days only to return in the evening. “The process is very slow and there are very few staff members on the site. I have been coming here for the last two days, instead of working, to get myself registered, but the rush is such that I have had to return without getting anything done,” he said.

Deputy collector Pradeep Naik admitted to the delay and said that the nature of work is such that it can’t done in a hurry. “I know people are finding it to be a tedious process. But we have to register their names, photographs, fingerprints and iris. It takes time to do so many things. This is an important drive. People should bear with us.”