Hyderabad: An independent analysis has revealed that the office of the Election Commission of Telangana state and Andhra Pradesh has collected Aadhaar details of voters without their consent.
The data was collected from the Election Commission of India which extracted the data from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the nodal agency for Aadhaar.
This is in violation of Supreme Court orders. The UIDAI helped the ECI get more data instead of informing the poll panel that this was in violation of the court’s orders. The data thus obtained helped the ECI to link millions of voters to their Aadhaar numbers.
Security researcher Srinivas Kodali got hold of three crucial documents that revealed that the ECI asked the UIDAI to give it ‘Application program Interface’ (APIs) to view Aadhaar data of voters. Second, the UIDAI complied with the request and the three documents of the office of EC of Telangana and AP, seek to extend the facility to TS and AP, so that Aadhaar-EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Cards) linking can be done in both the states.
The first document (dated March 16, 2015), a copy of which is now in the public domain, revealed that the ECI wrote to Director-General & Mission Director, UIDAI, seeking integration of Aadhaar data with EPIC. ‘It is expected that EPIC and Aadhaar data should be shown to the Election Registration Officer on a single page so that the officer can compare both the details and take decision immediately’ the letter stated.
In response to the ECI’s request on integrating Aadhaar date with EPIC, UIDAI replied on March 25, 2015, stating: “Instructions have already been given to UIDAI registrars/ EAs and UIDAI regional offices to conduct pilot project at few locations for collecting EPIC number at the time of enrolment where ever the same is available with the resident. The outcome will enable UIDAI to take a final decision on the matter.”
These two letters show that the ECI sought Aadhaar data of voters to be integrated with EPIC.
