The Election Commission (EC) is scheduled to meet top officers of the Union Home Ministry, Law Ministry and Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) next week regarding the linking of Aadhaar with voters’ IDs, EC sources said on Saturday.
After an amendment to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, in 2021 enabled Aadhaar linking with Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC), the EC began collecting Aadhaar numbers from electors on a voluntary basis. So far, however, the EC is yet to link the two databases. The exercise was meant to aid the EC in detecting duplicate registrations to clean up the electoral rolls. However, linking of Aadhaar was not mandatory.
Read More: Are Banks Open Today On Saturday, March 15? Check Bank Holiday List For This Month
Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Election Commissioner Sukhbir Singh Sandhu, and Election Commissioner Vivek Joshi are set to meet Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan, Legislative Department Secretary Rajiv Mani and UIDAI CEO Bhuvnesh Kumar on March 18 to discuss the linking of Aadhaar with EPICs.
The meeting comes at a time when the Trinamool Congress has raised the issue of electors in West Bengal and other states having the same EPIC number, leading the EC to acknowledge that some state chief electoral officers had used the wrong alphanumeric series when issuing EPIC numbers.
Read More: PM Internship Scheme 2025: Last Date Extended to March 31 – Apply Now!
The EC announced recently that it would issue new EPIC numbers to electors with duplicate numbers within three months. The commission has said that having duplicate numbers does not imply fake voters and that only those registered in a particular constituency can vote there.
