Aadhaar OTP verification now mandatory for online Tatkal booking: Railways

Jammu | Railway authorities have officially mandated Aadhaar verification through OTP for online ticket bookings under the Tatkal system across the country, a senior railway official said on Wednesday.

Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Jammu Division, Northern Railway, Uchit Singhal announced that from July 15 onwards, Aadhaar OTP verification became mandatory for online Tatkal booking.

Singhal emphasised that these amendments were made to ensure fair and transparent access to Tatkal tickets for passengers, protecting their interests and ensuring that genuine users benefit from the system.

"Passengers will not be able to get Tatkal tickets without verification through mobile OTP. Under the new system, Tatkal tickets will be available for booking through the IRCTC's official website, mobile app, or the Indian Railways' PRS counters," he said.

Tickets will be made available for booking through authorised agents only after authentication of the OTP generated by the Railway Reservation System, which will be sent to the mobile number provided by the user at the time of booking, he added.

"Those taking Tatkal reservation tickets will now have to carry a mobile with a SIM card linked to their Aadhaar number while booking the ticket," he informed.

The railways also maintained that bulk booking will not be allowed during the first 30 minutes of the booking window.

"To prevent bulk booking during the initial period of rail reservation, authorised ticketing agents of Indian Railways will not be allowed to book Tatkal tickets during the first 30 minutes of the booking window," Singhal said.

This restriction will apply from 10 am to 10.30 am for AC classes and from 11 am to 11.30 am for non-AC classes.

The railway administration has requested passengers to take note of these changes and ensure that their profiles are linked with their Aadhaar number to avoid inconvenience.

UIDAI deactivates Aadhaar of deceased person to prevent misuse, disables 1.17 cr ids

New Delhi | The UIDAI has started deactivating Aadhaar of deceased persons to prevent misuse of their identity proof, and disabled over 1.17 crore such unique 12-digit numbers till date, an official statement said on Wednesday.

As part of initiatives, the Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) has started a new service - Reporting of Death of a Family Member - on the myAadhaar Portal for deaths registered in 24 states and Union Territories (UTs), to allow individuals to report the death of their family members.

"In order to maintain the continued accuracy of the Aadhaar database, UIDAI has proactively taken the following measures to obtain death records from various sources and deactivate Aadhaar numbers after due validation," the statement said.

UIDAI said it requested the Registrar General of India (RGI) to share death records linked with Aadhaar number and has received approximately 1.55 crore death records from 24 states and UTs, using the Civil Registration System (CRS).

"After due validation, around 1.17 crore Aadhaar numbers have been deactivated. A similar exercise is continuing with non-CRS States/UTs. About 6.7 lakh death records have been received so far, and deactivation is in progress," the statement said.

On the "Reporting of Death of a Family Member", any family member of the deceased, after authenticating themselves, is required to provide the Aadhaar number and the death registration number, along with other demographic details of the deceased person on the portal.

After the due validation process of the information submitted by the family member, further action is taken for the deactivation, or otherwise, of the Aadhaar number of the deceased person.

UIDAI is currently running the process of integration of the portal with the remaining states and UTs.

"UIDAI is also taking support of state governments in identifying the deceased Aadhaar number holders. As a pilot, demographic details of Aadhaar number holders aged more than 100 years are being shared with state governments to verify whether the Aadhaar number holder is alive. Upon receipt of such verification report, necessary validation will be carried out before deactivating such Aadhaar number," the statement said.