People who do not link Aadhaar with election card will not be struck off voters' list: Law minister
The minister informed Rajya Sabha on Thursday that more than 54 crore of the nearly 95 crore total voters have opted to link their Aadhaar details with the voter list.
FollowUnion Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday (December 16) said that names of people who do not share their Aadhaar number to link with the election identity card will not be struck off the voters list. It also noted that the exercise is voluntary.
Addressing the Lok Sabha, the Law Minister said, "The Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, allows electoral registration officers to require the existing or prospective elector to provide the Aadhaar number for the 'purpose of establishing identity' on a 'voluntary basis'".
Also read:Â Jamia Masjid in Srinagar prohibits photography in mosque, men and women from sitting together
He was responding to a question on the linkage of Aadhaar with electoral rolls. The Election Commission has launched a programme to collect the Aadhaar number of existing and prospective electors on a voluntary basis from August 1 in all the states and UTs.
"It is voluntary to link Aadhaar with a Voter ID and consent is obtained from the elector for Aadhaar authentication in Form 6B which was recently introduced," he said.
However, the minister made it clear that "there is no provision for withdrawing the consent" to share Aadhaar details. Asked whether the names of the voters whose voter IDs are not linked with Aadhaar will be struck off from the voters' list, he replied in the negative.
Also read:Â 'No compensation to those who died': Bihar CM Nitish Kumar on hooch tragedy deaths
The minister informed Rajya Sabha on Thursday that more than 54 crore of the nearly 95 crore total voters have opted to link their Aadhaar details with the voter list.
He said linking of Aadhaar is "process driven" and "no targets have been given" for linking Aadhaar with election photo identity card.
Rijiju said the Unique Identification Authority of India (UlDAl), under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 has made it compulsory for the centralised storage of all Aadhaar numbers in a different repository known as 'Aadhaar Data Vault'.
Also read:Â Shraddha murder case: Vikas Walker meets top cop; seeks info on daughter's pending plaint
The Election Commission strictly follows the guidelines prescribed by UIDAI and "does not" store the Aadhaar numbers in its database. The Aadhaar number is used only for authentication purposes and EC does not retrieve any personal information from the UIDAI Aadhaar database, he underlined.
(With inputs from PTI)
