NEW DELHI: The Election Commission may not roll out the seeding of voter card with Aadhaar in the upcoming assembly polls of the five states, Chief Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra said on Thursday.
The Cabinet has approved the Bill but it has not been enacted yet. Chandra said that the seeding of voter cards with Aadhaar was meant to help in removal of duplicate voters. There can be some voters who may be registered at two places in the electoral rolls, he said.
After the EC had proposed to amend the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Cabinet on Wednesday gave green signal to the reforms which will allow seeding the Aadhaar with electoral rolls on a voluntary basis.
It also cleared the EC’s proposal to ease the enrolment schedule for first-time voters. Under the new proposal, sources said, enrolment of first-time voters will be allowed four times a year.
The EC is likely to announce the schedule of elections in the five states if Goa, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur in next couple of weeks.
In 2015, the EC had launched the National Electoral Rolls Purification & Authentication Programme whose main purpose was purification of electoral rolls.
It also intended to link electoral rolls data with Aadhaar to authenticate the genuineness of electors. However, it was stopped after an order by the Supreme Court.