- Abhijit Nath, NET Correspondent, Tripura
Agartala, July 30, 2022 : The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) – Kiran Gitte on Saturday noted that voter identity cards of 27 lakh 35 thousand 546 electorates will be linked with Aadhar in August and September next.
The Aadhar number of 12-digit random numbers issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) will be completely kept confidential in the database of the Election Commission of India, he added.
“As per the directions of the Supreme Court and amendment passed by the Parliament, voter identity cards will be linked with Aadhar’s 12 digit random number from August 01 to September 30 next in all the 60 assembly constituencies of Tripura and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are advised to visit each and every house for collecting this information,” said CEO Gitte in a press conference at Civil Secretariat here in Agartala on Saturday.
This decision has been initiated on recommendations of the Election Commission of India, the Ministry of Law & Justice, Govt of India has amended the Representation of Peoples Act, 1950 and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 vide the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 dated 30 December, 2021.
“At present, there are 27,35,546 electorates in Tripura comprising 13,81,693 males, 13,53,818 females and 35 third-genders while 70,000 new voters were included in the electoral roll in January last. As most of the assembly constituencies have electorates between 45,000 to 50,000, it would not be a problem for the BLOs to cover all the houses within a span of two months. Ultimately, 99 percent clean electoral rolls would be framed,” – asserted the CEO.
He, however, did not refute that there is a chance of 1 percent duplicity when being asked.
Apart from this, Gitte said “All 17+ year old youngsters can apply in advance for having their names enrolled in Voters list and not necessarily have to await the pre-requisite criterion of attaining age of 18 years on January 01 of a year. Eligible voters can file their advance applications on the first day of April, July, October and January. After getting registered, he or she will be issued an Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC).”
However, the rest two decisions are- Gender neutral provision for Service and Special Electors, and power to acquire premises for the purpose of conduct of election.
