Lakhimpur Deputy Commissioner appeals to voters to link Aadhaar with EPIC

A CORRESPONDENT

LAKHIMPUR: "Seventeen year-old youngsters and above can now apply in advance for having their names enrolled in the voter's list and not necessarily have to wait for the pre-requisite criterion of attaining age of 18 years on January 1 of a year. For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023 any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1 and October 1 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll. In other words, advanced application can be submitted on or after November 9, the date on which draft electoral roll will be published."

This was stated by Sumit Sattawan, the Deputy Commissioner of Lakhimpur, in a press conference which was convened in the conference hall of office to brief about the certain opportunities made by Election Commission of India for inclusion of youth in the Electoral Roll besides other provisions like introduction of new voter registration forms, voluntary Aadhaar linkage of the existing electors and authentication of Electoral Rolls Data. The press conference was held in the presence of Election Officer Mostafa Salim Ahmed and District Information and Public Relation Officer Mandira Chayengiya.

In the press conference, the Deputy Commissioner said that the polling stations having more than 1,500 electors would also be rationalized, modified as per the given schedule and before the draft publication of electoral rolls.

He further appealed to the voters of the district to link AADHAR number with Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC). "For linking of AADHAR number with Electoral Roll data, provision has been made in the modified registration forms to seek AADHAR details of electors. A new Form-6B has also been introduced for collecting AADHAR details of existing electors. However, no application for inclusion of name in electoral roll will be denied and no entries in electoral roll will be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate AADHAR number," the Deputy Commissioner added

While handling AADHAR number of the applicants, the provision under Section 37 of the Aadhar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016 must be adhered to. Under no circumstances should it go public. If the electors' information is required to put for public display, the Aadhar details must be removed or masked.

The Deputy Commissioner further said, "A time-bound drive is being started with effect from 01-08-2022 for collection of AADHAR number of the existing electors. Furnishing of Aadhar number is purely voluntary. Objective of the programme is to establish the identity of electors and authentication of entries in Electoral Roll." The Deputy Commissioner called upon the electors to complete the process online also by installing the Voters' Helpline App from the Google Play Store.

Regarding the field verification and super checking for healthy Electoral Roll, the Deputy Commissioner added, "For the purpose of improving the health of the electoral roll, the Election Commission has emphasized the need for field verification by the Booth Level Officers. There is a mechanism for supervision and checking for enforcing strict accountability of the work performed by different levels of electoral machinery, such as Supervisors, EROs and AEROs by field verification. Similarly, DEOs, Roll Observers and CEOs also check the work done by EROs before the final decision on claims and objections is taken. Besides, Officers from ECI and Office of the CEOs are also deployed to further random checks and to supervise."

According to the Deputy Commissioner, wth a view to ensure more involvement of political parties, the Commission has allowed Booth Level Agents (BLAs) of recognized political parties to file application in bulk, subject to the condition that a BLA shall not submit more than 10 forms to BLO at one time ot in one day. If a BLA files more than 30 applications or Forms during the entire period of filing claims and objections, then the cross verification must be done by ERO or AERO themselves. Further, the BLA will also submit a list of application forms with a declaration that he has personally verified the particulars of the application forms and is satisfied that they are correct. He added that certain provisions were made regarding the application form for correction in the Electoral Roll. Now, Form- 8 can be used for correction, fresh EPIC and change of place.

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