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Electoral reforms bill: Amid opposition uproar, govt explains why it is needed
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters for the purpose of establishing identity.
Amid protests by opposition parties against the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, the Centre on Tuesday reiterated that these reforms are needed. It gave a detailed overview of how the proposed changes will benefit the electoral system.
Watch: Govt vs opposition over election reforms
The bill is set to the tabled in the Rajya Sabha, or upper house, today for a debate. The opposition has been attacking the government for its passage in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
The opposition parties want the bill to be sent to a standing committee.
Meanwhile, the people closely associated with the formulation of the legislation, said that the ‘Election Laws (Amendment) bill 2021’ incorporates various electoral reforms which have been discussed for a long time.
They added that registration in electoral roll is done based on an application by a person who is eligible to be registered as a voter. This bill has a provision whereby the new applicant may voluntarily provide Aadhaar number along with the application for the purpose of identity.
The people cited above further said that no application will be rejected on the grounds that Aadhaar number has not been provided - a reiteration of what Union law minister Kiren Rijiju said on Monday after the passage of the bill in the Lok Sabha.
So how will the proposed reforms in the electoral system help in sieving out fake voters? "Aadhaar linking with electoral roll will solve one of the major problems in Electoral database management which is multiple enrolment of the same person at different places," said people aware of the developments.
"This may be due to the frequent shifting of residence by electors and getting enrolled in the new place without deleting the previous enrolment. Thus, the possibility of electors whose names appear in more than one electoral roll or at times more than once in the same electoral roll can be removed," they added.
The government functionaries also said on the condition of anonymity that once Aadhaar linkage is achieved, the electoral roll data system will instantly alert the existence of previous registration whenever a person applies for new registration. "This will help in cleaning the electoral roll to a great extent and facilitate elector registration in the location at which they are ‘ordinarily resident’."
Congress Lok Sabha MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, alleged that the proposed bill is related to the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.
"I don't know why the government was in hurry to pass Election Laws (Amendment) Bill. It should have been sent to a standing committee. We still don't have a data protection law. This may impact people's voting rights," Chowdhury said on Monday.
The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks to allow electoral registration officers to seek the Aadhaar number of people who want to register as voters for the purpose of establishing identity.
