STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: Despite the fact that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has not made linking of Aadhaar card and Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) mandatory so far, good progress has been witnessed in such seeding in Assam.
According to the ECI, EPIC is being linked with Aadhaar cards in order to establish the identity of the elector concerned. It will also assist the commission in removing duplicate entries from the electoral roll, as well as in repairing system leaks. As such, the ECI had recently appealed to voters of the country to opt for EPIC-Aadhaar linkage.
According to sources in the state's Election Department, 60.55 per cent of the total electorate of Assam has linked their EPIC with Aadhaar cards so far.
According to the sources, as on the first half of this month, the total number of voters in the state was 2,38,42,303, out of whom 1,44,36,575 have already completed EPIC-Aadhaar linkage. According to available data, the Dhubri election district has registered the highest percentage of EPIC-Aadhaar linkage. Out of 6,14,559 voters in the election district, 86. 52 per cent has linked EPIC with Aadhaar. The Majuli election district comes second with 83.94 per cent EPIC-Aadhaar linkage.
Election districts with more than 70 per cent linkage include Bongaigaon (79.24 per cent), North Salmara (75.64), South Salmara (75.31), Bilasipara (74.99), Goalpara (74.46), Hailakandi (73.68), Barpeta (73.05), Cachar (72), Hojai (71.42) and Sivasagar (70.32).
The lowest seeding has been registered in Sadiya (33.71 per cent of 1,94,892 voters) and Kamrup Metro (40.25 per cent of 11,68,979 voters).
The sources in the state Election Department informed that electors can continue linking of EPIC and Aadhaar till April next year, either online or offline. For online seeding, electors can access the portals nvsp.in and voter portal, or use the voter helpine app. Further, offline seeding can be done with the assistance of booth-level officers, one of whom is posted for each booth. The booth-level officers do the seeding through the 'Garuda' app.
The sources added that offline seeding can be also done by submitting the required documents at the district-level branches of the Election Department. Such seeding is done through the ECI's internal portal named ERONET, the sources added.
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