CEO urges parties to help Aadhaar linkage programme
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, August 30 2022: In connection with the Voter ID-Aadhaar linkage programme, which commenced from August 1, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Manipur Rajesh Agrawal convened a meeting with representatives of all recognised political parties at the conference hall of CEO Manipur at Lamphelpat, Tuesday.

During the meeting, the CEO urged political parties to help in the Voter ID-Aadhaar linkage programme being taken up by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to ensure that a voter is enrolled in the electoral roll only from a single AC.

The meeting was attended by the representatives of 10 recognised national/state political parties namely All India Trinamool Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Janata Dal (United), Indian National Congress, Nationalist Congress Party, National People's Party, Naga People's Front and People's Democratic Alliance.

During the meeting, CEO Rajesh Agrawal highlighted the amended the Representation of the People Act, 19S0 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 which cover aspects of multiple qualifying dates for registration in the electoral roll, furnishing of Aadhaar number by the existing electors and citizens seeking registration in the electoral roll, gender neutral provisions for service electors and special electors and power to acquire premises for the conduct of elections.

Regarding multiple qualifying dates, the CEO Manipur apprised the representatives of political parties that there will be four qualifying dates - 1st January, 1st April, 1st July and 1st October as eligibility for youngsters to register in electoral rolls as opposed to the earlier single qualifying date of 1st January only.

He said that youngsters who have crossed 17 years of age can apply in advance for having their names enrolled in the voter s list and not necessarily have to await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining the age of 18 years on 1st January of a year.

Henceforth, the electoral rolls will be updated every quarter, he said.

While highlighting the amendments made in various Forms, Rajesh Agrawal informed that Form 6 shall be used only for fresh registration, Form 7 for objection to proposed inclusion or deletion of a person from the electoral roll or self-deletion and Form 8 for correction of particulars, shifting of residence, marking of PwDs and replacement of EPIC.

He also informed that Form 8A which was earlier used for transposition of electors has been discontinued.

Regarding furnishing of Aadhaar by electors, the CEO said That the ECI has launched a nationwide programme on August 1, 2022 for collection of Aadhaar from electors with the objective of establishing the identity of electors and authentication of entries in electoral roll which will eventually help in identifying registration of name of the same person in more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.

He informed that collection of Aadhaar numbers in Form 6B may be done online by the electors themselves or through offline.

An elector may fill Form 6B online through www.nvsp.in or www.voterportal.eci.gov.in or Voter Helpline App.

In offline mode, BLOs are currently making house-to-house visit for collection of Aadhaar number from electors in hard copy using Form 6B.All the off-line submitted Form 6B shall be digitised by BLOs using GARUDA App or by ERO using ERONET, within seven days of receipt of the Forms.

In case, the elector does not have the Aadhaar number and thereby is not able to furnish Aadhaar number, he/she needs to submit a copy of any of the 11 alternative documents like MGNREGA Job Card, bank/post office passbook with photograph, driving license, PAN card, Indian passport, pension document with photograph.

According to CEO Rajesh Agrawal, Bishnupur district tops the list in submission of Aadhaar card with 86.71 percent of electors furnishing their Aadhaar data, followed by Jiribam (83.39%), Thoubal (64.59%) Kangpokpi (58.92%), Imphal East (53.12%), Imphal West (50.17%), Churachandpur (40.93%), Tamenglong (39.44%), Ukhrul (32.24%), Senapati (19.28%) and Chandel (17.80%).The CEO Manipur also sought cooperation of political parties in terms of dissemination of information and in convincing the electors to furnish their Aadhaar data while assuring that privacy of data of the electors shall be maintained.

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