ECI Drive To Collect Voters' Aadhaar Numbers In Andhra Pradesh

AMARAVATI: The Election Commission of India launched a drive for the collection of Aadhar numbers of the existing electors in Andhra Pradesh with time-bound guidelines from Monday. The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, authorising the linking of Aadhaar with Voter IDs, was passed by the Lok Sabha through a voice vote in December 2021.

AP Chief Electoral Officer Mukesh Kumar said that the objective of the programme is to establish the identity of electors and authentication of entries in the electoral roll.

As per the amended Representation of People Act, even new voters would be required to furnish their Aadhar number.

The collection of Aadhar numbers was done with a set of guidelines as stated below.

Furnishing of Aadhar number is purely voluntary.

The electoral registration forms were made simpler and more user-friendly.

The new modified forms came into force on Monday.

A provision has been made in the modified registration forms for linking of Aadhar number of electors.

A new Form 6B has been introduced for collecting the Aadhar number of existing electors.

However, no application for inclusion of name in electoral rolls will be denied, nor will the existing entries be deleted over non-furnishing of Aadhar number.

The provision under Section 37 of the Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 would be adhered to while handling Aadhar number of the applicants.

Under no circumstances, would the Aadhar number ll be made public, the CEO clarified.

Polling stations having more than 1,500 electors would be rationalised as part of the annual summary revision (of electoral rolls), in accordance with the Manual on Polling Stations, 2020.

A new polling station would be created only after rationalising the sections adjacent to the polling stations to the extent possible.

Another objective of rationalisation of polling stations is to group all the family members and neighbours in a section.

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