CABINET CLEARS DRAFT BILL FOR LINKING AADHAR & VOTER ID ON THE PLEA OF (EC) AS VOLUNTARY LINKAGE, SEEKING KEY REFORMS (RPA)

The Union Cabinet cleared the proposed amendments to the electoral law seeking to bring it in the key reforms as voluntary linkage of the voter ID with Aadhar number to weed out bogus and the duplicate entries in the electoral rolls.Another reforms sought to be implemented is to allow four qualifying dates in a year ie January first, April First , July first and the October first as earlier it was only January first. The draft bill to amend the representation of the people Act (RPA) and set to be before the Parliament in the winter session, also seeks to make gender - neutral a provision allowing only the wife of a male service voter to register as a voter in the same constituency as he.The fourth amendment seeks to empower the EC) to requisite premises for any purpose related to elections .The bill to amend the RP act proposes to empower the electoral registeration to seek Aadhar number of existing as well as the new voters , only on a voluntary basis . The Aadhar number will only be used for the purpose of voter authentication.The EC decided to abandon the program in view of the SC order restricting the use of Aadhar.Following the SC judgement in 2019 allowing Collection of Aadhar with the amendment in the Aadhar Act , the EC wrote to the law ministry seeking a suitable amendment to enable mandatory linking of voter card with Aadhar and this was agreed by the law ministry.Other reforms proposed by the EC including making the paid news an corrupt practice  , will have to wait further longer .