Aadhaar Details to Be Collected for Electoral Registration in Chandigarh, Says Election Commission

The Chief Electoral Officer of Chandigarh chaired a meeting concerning Chandigarh Parliamentary Constituency on Friday regarding the latest amendments in election rules which are to be implemented from August 1, 2022.

District Election Officer, Electoral Registration Officer and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AERO) were present in the meeting.

An official release said that as part of amendments for use of Aadhaar for electoral registration purpose, Aadhaar will be collected from the registered electors of Chandigarh.

The release said Election Commission has conveyed the amendments made by the Ministry of Law and Justice in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 vide the Election Laws (Amendment) Act 2021.

"The amendments will cover the following aspects. Use of Aadhaar for electoral registration purpose. On the direction of Election Commission, Aadhaar will be collected from the registered electors of Chandigarh," the release said.

It said there will be multiple qualifying dates from August 1 2022 and elaborated that there will be four qualifying dates - January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1 for enrolment in electoral rolls.

Updated forms mentioned in the latest instructions will be used in the upcoming Special Summary Revision of Photo Electoral Rolls. The AEROs were also briefed about the amendments in the forms.

AEROs were directed to provide training regarding the amendments in election rules, IT applications (Garuda App, NVSP, Voter Portal and ERO Net) to the BLOs working under their jurisdiction.

The Chief Electoral Officer also reviewed the progress of the disposal of forms.

Earlier this year, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) published a detailed report on the functioning of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in which it has pointed out a list of flaws that exist in the Aadhaar infrastructure.

The 108-page report that was prepared for submission to the President includes a number of flaws that impact the Aadhaar infrastructure. It included the assessment of the unique ID system implemented by the UIDAI that took place between 2014–15 and 2018–19.

Security issues, privacy concerns, and infrastructural flaws with Aadhaar have been reported several times in the past. However, UIDAI has not yet brought any major updates to its system.