Govt acting on EC’s proposal to link Aadhaar with voter IDs

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 8

The voter ID card may soon be linked with Aadhaar, as government sources indicated that the proposal in that regard from the Election Commission (EC) was under active consideration.

The Election Commission had recently written a letter to the Ministry of Law & Justice proposing amendments to the Representation of People Act to allow Election Commission to seek Aadhaar numbers of those applying to become voters and also those who are already on electoral rolls.

A senior government official said, “The Law Ministry is working on the proposal to give the poll panel statutory backing to collect Aadhaar numbers of new applicants and existing voters to check multiple entries in electoral rolls.”

In August 2015, a Supreme Court order on Aadhaar card had put brakes on the EC’s project to link UIDAI (Aadhaar) number with voters’ electoral data to check multiple entries in electoral rolls.

The election panel was then collecting Aadhaar number as part of its National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP).

According to the Election Commission proposal sent in August, the electoral law should be amended to empower electoral registration officers to seek Aadhaar numbers of existing voters as well as of those applying to get their names on the voters’ list.

Seeking to check multiple entries in electoral rolls and to make them error-free, the commission had earlier embarked on an ambitious project to link Aadhaar numbers with voters’ electoral data.

“Since the Supreme Court order makes it clear that sanction of law is required to collect Aadhaar number, the commission has proposed changes in the electoral law,” a senior Election Commission official reasoned.