Itanagar, Aug 5: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Padmini Singla on Thursday appealed to the state's voters to link their electors photo identity cards (EPIC) with Aadhaar numbers for a "clean and transparent" electoral roll.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has launched a nationwide drive to link voter identity (ID) cards with Aadhaar numbers, the CEO said while briefing media about the poll panel's latest initiative at Nirvachan Bhawan here.
As per the ECI, the voter ID and Aadhaar linking drive will help in establishing identity of the electors and authentication of entries in electoral roll, thereby preventing duplicate entries in the E-roll.
For linking of Aadhaar number with Electoral Roll data, ECI has introduced 'Form 6B' for submission of Aadhaar number by an existing elector. Form 6B can be submitted through the online method (through National Voters' Services Portal - nvsp.in, Voters Helpline) as well as offline method (to BLO, ERO, AERO), she said.
The CEO also informed that 'special' camps would be conducted on every Sunday of the month in each district where one can submit Form 6B offline or can get the things cleared or know the process on how to link their voter ID cards with Aadhaar numbers.
She, however, said that furnishing of Aadhaar number is purely voluntary, while adding that "the purpose of obtaining of Aadhaar number is for authentication of electors' entries in electoral roll and extending electoral services to them in future".
The CEO also informed that the ECI has made provision that youngsters aged 17-plus now could apply in advance for having their names enrolled in the voters' list and not necessarily have to await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining the age of 18 years on 1st January of a year.
"ECI has directed the CEOs/EROs/AEROs of all States to work out tech-enabled solutions such that the youth are facilitated to file their advance applications with reference to three subsequent qualifying dates i.e. 1st April, 1st July and 1st October and not just 1st January. Henceforth, the Electoral Roll will be updated every quarter and eligible youngsters can be registered in the next quarter of the year in which he/she has attained the qualifying age of 18 years. After getting registered, he/she will be issued an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC)," she said.
For the current round of annual revision of electoral roll, 2023, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1 and October 1 of 2023 can also submit an advance application for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of electoral roll.
"In other words, advance applications can be submitted on or after 9th November 2022, the date on which the draft electoral roll will be published," Singla said.
