Kiren Rijuju said that the government has already sent the notification for Aadhaar-Voter linking.
Highlight
- The notifications are part of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, passed in Parliament last year
- His move is to make the electoral law gender neutral for service voters
- Rijiju called it a ‘historic step’ of the Modi government to improve the electoral process
Voter-Aadhaar Linking: The government has issued four notifications allowing linking of voter list data with Aadhaar. The move is to make the electoral law gender-neutral for service voters and enable young citizens to register as voters four times a year instead of the current one.
The notifications are part of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021, passed by Parliament late last year. Law Minister Kiren Rijiju announced on Twitter that four notifications have been issued in this regard in consultation with the Election Commission.
The Union Minister shared a chart to say that the notifications will enable “linking of voter list data with the Aadhaar ecosystem to prevent the menace of multiple enrollments of the same person at different locations”.
He also said that now a citizen who turns 18 on 1st January or 1st April or 1st July or 1st October in a calendar year can apply for voter registration immediately.
“The four qualifying dates will significantly increase the voter base,” he said. As of now, the only cut off date to register as a voter is January 1. Anyone who turns 18 on or before January 1 can register as a voter on the first day of January.
After this, those who turn 18 have to wait for a full year. On making the electoral law gender neutral, he said that the word “wife” would be replaced with the word “spouse”, making the law gender neutral, allowing a service voter’s wife or husband to take advantage of the voting facility available to them. will allow.
Soldiers posted in remote areas or members of Indian missions abroad are some of the people who are considered as service voters.
He said that the Election Commission can now demand any premises for the storage of election related material and for the accommodation of security forces and polling personnel. Rijiju called it a “historic step” by the Narendra Modi government to improve the electoral process.
Read also: The Union Cabinet approved the bill to link Aadhaar number with Voter ID.