Soon EC can link Aadhaar with voter card

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The Election Commission could be empowered with legalities to link Aadhaar details with voters’ list. This will be possible only after the Aadhaar Act is amended and the government is working on it.

It is learned the measure may find and wipe out duplicate entries. It will also pave the road for remote voting of migrant voters.

The commission proposed the Law Ministry to amend the Representation of the People Act to seek Aadhaar numbers for new new as well as existing voters.

The ministry is reported working on a note and this could soon be put up before the Union Cabinet.

According to EC officials, the Aadhaar-electoral photo identity card will help EC’s plan to work towards secure voting to help migrant voters like migrant laborers and domestic workers.

An EC officer said, “Their identification having been adequately verified, the commission can explore technology that will let them vote from a remote location guarded by the EC.”

A similar exercise took place in 2015 as part of EC’s National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme but was abandoned after a judgment of the apex court restricted use of Aadhaar card. However, by then EC had linked around 32 crore.

However, in 2019 a judgment of the apex court allowed mandatory collection of Aadhaar with an amendment.

In August EC wrote a letter to the law ministry to work for a suitable amendment.