Hyderabad: The Aadhaar mobile phone linkage deadline is giving anxious moments to senior citizens.

Mobile companies insist on cross checking of fingerprints with the Aadhaar data to know whether the mobile number is held by the same person. Due to ageing, senior citizens’ fingerprints fail to match. Apparently, complaints of mismatch are on the rise.

Telecom companies are sending SMSes to subscribers asking them to link the aadhhaar with the mobile number by February 2018. They warned of termination of services from March 2018.

Worried senior citizens are running from pillar to post, requesting them to consider other ID proofs for linkage.

Some others fear sharing their biometric data with private companies as there are chances of misuse of the aadhaar data.

They question the rationale behind insisting on fingerprints for the Aadhaar-mobile linkage

“I linked aadhaar with bank account, pan card, LPG connection, etc easily. But linkage with mobile phone has been creating problems. My fingerprints did not match with the aadhaar data,” said Pisati Sriram, a 72-year old retired employee.

P.Vijaya Laxmi, a 70-year old, said, "My biometric details were collected in 2010. Now, they did not match when I applied for the mobile phone linkage. They said my fingerprints got vanished due to ageing.”