Amid protests by opposition parties against the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Centre on Tuesday said the move would solve the "major problem" of multiple enrolment of the same person at different places and help in "cleaning" the voters list to a great extent.
The assertion comes a day after the 'Election Laws (Amendment) bill 2021' to link electoral roll data with the Aadhaar ecosystem and bring other poll reforms was passed by the Lok Sabha after a brief debate and amid demand by the Opposition to refer it to a standing committee.
Registration in the electoral roll is done based on an application by a person who is eligible to be registered as a voter. This bill has a provision whereby the new applicant may voluntarily provide Aadhaar number along with the application for the purpose of identity. No application will be rejected on the grounds that Aadhaar number has not been provided, government sources told news agency ANI.
Aadhaar linking with electoral roll will solve "one of the major problems" in electoral database management which is multiple enrolment of the same person at different places, they said.
This may be due to the frequent shifting of residence by electors and getting enrolled in the new place without deleting the previous enrolment, the sources noted.
Thus, the possibility of electors whose names appear in more than one electoral roll or at times more than once in the same electoral roll can be removed, they said.
Once Aadhaar linkage is achieved, the electoral roll data system will instantly alert the existence of previous registration(s) whenever a person applies for new registration, the sources said.
This will help in "cleaning" the electoral roll to a great extent and facilitate voter registration in the location at which they are 'ordinarily resident', the sources added.
Lok Sabha passed the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 on Monday amid the Opposition's protest.
Leader of Congress Party in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury demanded the Bill be sent to the standing committee. Meanwhile, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said that the Centre is curtailing the independence of the Election Commission by bringing the legislation.
Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters "for the purpose of establishing identity." The Bill also seeks to allow the electoral registration officers to get Aadhaar numbers from "persons already included in the electoral roll for the purposes of authentication of entries in the electoral roll, and to identify registration of the name of the same person in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency."
(With inputs from Agencies)
