'Face-Saving Measure': TMC On Poll Panel's March 18 Meet On Voter ID-Aadhaar Linking
Trinamool Congress criticises the Election Commission's meeting on voter ID duplication as a "face-saving measure."
New Delhi, Mar 15 (PTI) Trinamool Congress on Saturday said the meeting convened by the Chief Election Commissioner to discuss voter identity card and Aadhaar seeding is a "face-saving measure".
With allegations of voter ID number duplication and fudging of electoral roll data, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has convened a meeting with the Union Home Secretary, the Legislative Secretary, and Chief Executive Officer of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on March 18, to discuss the linking of Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) with Aadhaar.
Sagarika Ghose, deputy leader of Trinamool Congress (TMC) in Rajya Sabha, said the statements issued by the poll panel earlier over the duplicate EPIC numbers and this meeting being called now, are "face-saving measures".
She added that the TMC will keep a strict vigil till the next state elections.
"First, three statements. Now this meeting. This is just a face-saving measure. We will keep a hawk-eye vigil till the elections," Ghose said.
On March 11, a 10-member TMC delegation had met the full Election Commission bench over the duplicate EPIC numbers.
In a memorandum to the Election Commission, the TMC had also said there have been "credible allegations of Aadhaar cards being cloned and the use of these cloned Aadhaar cards to facilitate fake voter registrations." Pointing out that the Election Commission has not clearly stated on its Form 6B that seeding Aadhaar with EPIC is an entirely voluntary process and not compulsory, the party had asked how the poll panel would ensure that the alleged cloning of Aadhaar numbers does not affect the EPIC and electoral registration of voters.
Meanwhile, several other opposition parties have also demanded a discussion on the EPIC number duplication, calling it a major issue for democracy.
According to a source, the opposition parties said they are flexible with the rule under which the discussion should be held, but stressed that Parliament should discuss the issue.
The duplication of voter ID card numbers in different states was raised by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on February 27.
The Election Commission, on March 2, issued a statement saying that identical EPIC numbers or series were allotted to some electors from different states and Union Territories due to a "decentralised and manual mechanism" being followed prior to shifting of the electoral roll database of all states to the ERONET (Electoral Roll Management) platform.
They asserted that while EPIC numbers of some voters "may be identical", the other details -- including demographic details, assembly constituency and polling booth -- are different.
In another statement, the Election Commission said that since the allotment of EPIC series to the states and UTs in 2000, some Electoral Registration Officers did not use the correct series. They said the allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series could not have been detected as the states and UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases.
The poll authority also said it has now decided to resolve this "long-pending issue" after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned state chief electoral officers in the next three months.
It has also directed its poll machinery in the states to hold regular meetings with political parties and resolve issues according to procedure.
(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)
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