Residents in neighbourhoods such as Dwarakanagar, Seetammadhara and Boyapalem in Visakhapatnam say they are being charged far more than necessary to correct their name on Aadhaar, with local facilitators reportedly demanding anywhere from ₹3,000 for a single spelling fix to ₹15,000-18,000 for a full name change. The going rate has alarmed residents who later discover how little the process is meant to cost.
Under the official procedure, a full name correction on Aadhaar requires a gazette notification, which is obtained through an application to the local tahsildar or RDO office along with a newspaper publication of the proposed change. Once that gazette document is in hand, the actual update at an Aadhaar Seva Kendra carries only UIDAI's standard data-update charge, a nominal sum that is a fraction of what residents say they have been asked to pay by go-betweens who offer to handle the paperwork for them.
The gap between the official cost and what people end up paying largely comes down to unfamiliarity with the process. Many applicants, particularly those correcting names after marriage or fixing transliteration errors between Telugu and English spellings, are unaware that the gazette step can be completed directly through government offices without an intermediary, and instead turn to local agents clustered around Meeseva and Aadhaar centres who bundle the paperwork for a steep fee.
Consumer activists in the city have flagged the pattern before, noting that Aadhaar-linked services are an especially common entry point for unofficial facilitation fees because the documentation requirements, while not complicated, are unfamiliar to most first-time applicants. UIDAI's own portal allows residents to track gazette and update requirements without going through a paid agent, and tahsildar offices are required to process gazette applications without demanding extra payment beyond the standard publication cost.
For now, the simplest safeguard for residents remains awareness: name-correction seekers in Visakhapatnam are better served visiting their local tahsildar office directly to ask about the gazette process before paying anyone who offers to fast-track the paperwork.
