The linkage of all Aadhaar cardholders with EPIC is progressing at a brisk pace in both the Telugu States.
Except in Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy, other Telangana districts completed 90 per cent of seeding and in six districts, it touched almost 100 per cent, according to Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwar Lal. Telangana’s overall performance came down due to mere 30 per cent seeding in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), he added.
A meeting was convened by Ranga Reddy Collector and GHMC Commissioner to speed up the process and achieve more than 90 per cent linkage, he said and added that the Election Commission announced awards to the first three districts that would achieve 100 per cent Aadhaar-EPIC linkage.
In Telangana State as well as within the limits of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) in the capital city, about 70 per cent of seeding is completed and the officials have set a target to cover the remaining by May 31.
To achieve the target, various campaigns and publicity drives will be taken up in the next few days. “The process will be completed by May end and Telangana will become the first State to link all Aadhaar users to EPIC,” said CEO Bhanwar Lal.
“In June, those who do not have Aadhaar cards will be identified and will be asked to register afresh. In July, the weeding out of duplicate electoral cards will begin. We are estimating that the multiple voter ID cards will be more in urban than in rural areas,” he explained.
The Election Commission officials do not see any conflict with the Supreme Court with regard to the usage of Aadhaar data with various welfare schemes. The Apex Court had earlier rapped the State governments to not link Aadhaar with various schemes.
According to the officials, the court observation only applies to benefit schemes of the State governments and not to the Chief Electoral Officers (CEO) initiative. Hence, the EC is moving swiftly in AP and Telangana to seed Aadhaar with EPIC (Electoral Photo ID Card).
To speed up the process, the CEO is also planning to hold meetings with political parties as well as the GHMC officials. There are various options by which one can link their Aadhaar card with the EPIC including submission of Aadhaar copy online, offline and also through mobile sms and calls.
Though a mobile app has been developed for the linkage, the response has been poor. Most of the citizens have registered through the call-centre facility.
