Hisar district is lagging in achieving its target under the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), a project of the Election Commission (EC) in which the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) is linked with the Aadhaar number of the registered voter. The aim of the programme is to create an error-free voter identification system by removing duplication.
Under NERPAP, which commenced in March, the district election office has only managed to link 30.59% of the Aadhaar numbers with the EPICs in the seven constituencies of the district.
The deadline to complete the project was July 31 and according to sources it has now been extended to August 15.
From the pace of work, it seems the office is going to miss this deadline too.
Out of Hisar's seven constituencies, Adampur constituency is leading with 38.91% of EPICs linked whereas Narnaund constituency is at the bottom with 19.16% linkage.
Election tehsildar, district election office, Ram Niwas denied that the office had failed to complete the project.
"We had to collect information first. That was the first objective. Since the data entry started after data collection, it seems the project is behind schedule. Every day, our data entry operator makes 500 entries. I am sure we will complete the project by the end of this month," Ram Niwas said.
The office has not completed even the collection of Aadhaar numbers. Till July 31, the office had identified 11,71,341 electors in the district and collected only 8,82,875 Aadhaar numbers, that is 76.80% of the total.
{{/usCountry}}The office has not completed even the collection of Aadhaar numbers. Till July 31, the office had identified 11,71,341 electors in the district and collected only 8,82,875 Aadhaar numbers, that is 76.80% of the total.
{{/usCountry}}Explaining the problem, Ramniwas said, "In many cases, people gave reasons where field officers find themselves helpless. Some electors said they haven't even applied for their Aadhaar cards yet."
Ram Niwas said the district administration is doing everything possible to speed up the process.
Ironically, according to the data provided by the district election office, not a single person has refused to provide the Aadhaar number.