In its attempt to capitalise on the data available with the Registrar General of India in the form of Aadhaar numbers allotted to individuals, the Election Commission of India has launched a National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) to ensure error-free electoral rolls without multiple entries.
Launching the programme in Tamil Nadu, Chief Electoral Officer Sandeep Saxena said, “Voters can voluntarily come forward and inform if they have multiple entries in the electoral rolls, provide correct details and authenticate them with their Aadhaar number. Though providing details such as Aadhaar, mobile number and e-mail ID is not mandatory, providing them would help us ensure an error-free roll.”
Voters can use the National Voters Service Portal of the ECI, send an e-mail to the Election Commission, text ‘51969’ or call up ‘1950’ to provide details or manually fill in a form during special camps.
A mobile phone app is being developed for this purpose. Special camps would be organised in over 64,000 booths on the second Sunday of April and May (April 12, 26 and May 10 and 24), in which officials would make corrections “on the spot”.
Individuals who do not have an Aadhaar number can provide their mobile or landline number and e-mail ID and the Election Commission would encourage them to attend special camps for Aadhaar.
“Once we get a request for a change in particulars or delete a multiple entry, a booth-level officer would verify the claim after checking documentary evidence and make the changes. We will not delete the name of any voter without his or her consent,” he said.
The personal details, including the Aadhar number, e-mail ID and mobile or landline numbers could be modified later on with the help of a one-time password (OTP).
The Aadhar number would be linked with the EPIC of every individual in the electoral database as well as with the death registers of local bodies, he said.
A State Resident Data Hub (SRDH) with the Aadhaar database in Tamil Nadu would be functional soon, he added.
