The Patna administration on Thursday launched a drive to link voter ID cards with Aadhaar numbers to cut down on duplication in electoral lists.
In the inaugural session of the drive in Bihar, conducted under the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme, Patna deputy development commissioner Rajeev Kumar held a meeting with representatives of different political parties. He urged them to make voters aware about the programme so that the target can be achieved before the Assembly elections later this year.
Rajeev said: "The Election Commission launched the programme on March 3 across India and the prime objective was to end duplication in electoral rolls and to make it error-free. Through this programme, we will link the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) data with that of Aadhaar for authentication."
In Patna district's 14 Assembly constituencies, there are 4,32,0251 voters but 28,588 of them have been found to have more than one voter ID card. The figure could still go up, sources claimed.
The national authentication programme will also focus on improving image quality of electors and sort out issues such as errors in name, date of birth, sex, address and other details.
On the way to link EPIC data with Aadhaar numbers, the deputy development commissioner said: "The electorate would be able to feed their Aadhaar numbers over text messages, email, mobile application and National Voters Service Portal through the Election Commission website. They can also feed in their Aadhaar numbers by calling at the state call centres on 1950 or submit details in a hard copy with photocopies of the voter ID and Aadhaar cards."
The electoral registration officer, authorised by the district electoral officer-cum-district magistrate, would also organise special camps and set up voter facilitation centres, e-seva centres and citizen service centres for the job.
Booth-level officers would chip in as well by collecting details in a door-to-door survey. For that, booth-level officers would be appointed by March 15.
Rajeev said: "We would award those voters, with more than one EPIC, who take the initiative to withdraw their names from the data."
