The government, however said, the linkage of Aadhar with Voter Id will remove bogus entries, clean up electoral rolls and give remote voting rights. Election Commission of India has told an eminent news agency that the Centre is preparing to make required legal changes to ensure linkage of Aadhaar with voter ID.
During the meeting of law ministry to discuss electoral reforms on Tuesday, it has conveyed to the Election Commission that the Centre is preparing to make certain legal changes to amend the Aadhaar Act. Thus, the amendment will legally empower the Election Commission to link Aadhaar with voter identity card.
Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora along with election commissioners, Ashok Lavasa and Sunil Chandra has met legislative affairs secretary G Narayan Raju and additional secretary Rita Vashishth on Tuesday to discuss pending electoral reforms.
As per the government sources, the law ministry may soon move a note before the Union Cabinet for the decision and linking is expected to be live before the crucial Bihar Assembly election scheduled towards the end of the year.
It has been said by the Election Commission that the linkage will sort two issues that the commission has been highlighting-- the issue of duplication in electoral rolls and allowing citizens to vote from anywhere. However, the EC is looking at making it possible for a person who stays in Gurgaon to vote during Bihar election from his place itself.
Since 2015, the demand of linkage of Aadhaar with voter ID has been revolving. Had the matter been taken up by EC in 2015 as part of its
National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme, around 32 crore Aadhaar numbers were seeded, but the plan was put on hold after Supreme Court judgment on restricting the use of Aadhaar.