The first camp held for linking Aadhaar with Electoral Photo Identity Card on Sunday turned out to be a damp squib in the Assembly constituencies in Chennai, with less than 5,000 people turning up in most venues.
Thousand Lights Assembly constituency in Chennai registered the highest turnout of 4,336 voters. Harbour Assembly constituency registered the lowest turnout of 1,532 voters.
V.S. Jayaraman of T. Nagar residents’ Welfare Association said many residents were worried about sharing their Aadhaar data. “I have not linked Aadhaar with EPIC,” he said.
Geetha Ganesh, secretary of AGS Colony Residents’ Welfare Association, Velachery West, said residents were not doing it because it is not compulsory. “Almost 50% of the residents in our association have linked them. I feel the Election Commission should make it compulsory instead of giving a choice to voters. Voters who have not linked their Aadhaar with EPIC should not be allowed to vote,” she said.
Chennai district continues to be the lowest with just 11% of the 39.05 lakh voters offering to link their Aadhaar with EPIC. On Sunday, just 43,000 voters visited the camps at 943 locations.
Why link Aadhaar?
Even though the Election Commission of India has said that linking Aadhaar with EPIC is not mandatory, Election Commissioner Anup Chandra Pandey during a recent visit to Ripon Buildings in Chennai said the voters should link Aadhaar as the digital mode of verification of fingerprints is likely to be introduced during elections in future.
Another reason is to prevent duplication of entry on the electoral roll. For instance, in the last one year, the Election Commission of India has identified and sent a list of 3.2 lakh names of voters in Chennai using a software for matching the photograph, including eyes, chin, cheek, forehead of electors in each of the Assembly constituencies.
After verification, booth-level officers decided to delete 1.6 lakh duplicate entries. However, over 3,000 electors were enrolled again after ascertaining that they were not duplicate entries.
For example, twins were identified by the software as duplicate entries. Similarly, many electors had the wrong photograph on the rolls. Such electors were identified and enrolled again.
The Election Commission is likely to send another set of duplicate entries across Assembly segments to delete more electors in Chennai and other areas. Political party representatives at meetings with election officials have voiced concern about the civic issues caused by the reluctance in linking Aadhaar with EPIC, deletion of duplicate entries using software and reduction in the number of genuine voters.
