Election Commission to link voter card with Aadhaar
The government is unable to push for delimitation because of low strength in RS
Hyderabad: In a move to weed out the bogus voters from the data base, the Election Commission of India is all set to link Aadhaar Card with the Elector’s Photo Identity Card.
“Presently there are over 84 crore voter IDs in India, while the number of voter cards are 74 crore. There is difference of over 10 crore voter cards, which could be bogus or duplicate,” pointed out H.S. Bhrama, Election Commissioner of India, here on Saturday.
He continued, “This project will be taken up simultaneously in all 676 districts of the country starting from March 1, 2015, and be completed by August 15, 2015.”
The project to link EPIC with Aadhaar card is being taken up as the latter has been taken up more effectively in the country.
Mr Bhrama said that only the EPIC card would be the base for voting not Aadhaar card.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India has made it clear that the delimitation of Assembly constitution is in the central government’s court now.
“Delimitation requires amendment to Articles 82 & 170 of the Constitution. And the process can be taken only by the Centre,” said HS Bhrama, Chief Election Commission, here on Saturday.
As per sections 26 & 15 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, number of Assembly seats must be increased from 119 to 175 in Telangana and from 153 to 225 in AP.
The Constitution (84th amendment) Act, 2001 and the Constitution (87th amendment) Act 2003 have inter alia amended articles 81, 82, 170, 332 and 332 of the Constitution of India. Under the amendment, each state shall be re-delimited into territorial parliamentary and Assembly constituencies on the basis of 2001 census and the extent of such constituencies as delimited shall remain frozen till the first census to be taken after the year 2026.
The NDA government does not have the required numbers for this in the Rajya Sabha.
The government fears that others such as Kerala, which has a population similar to Telangana, may also seek delimitation.
Delimitation is also necessary in view of transfers of seven mandals of Khammam district to AP due to potential submergence under the Polavaram projects waters.