Notification Allowing Linking Aadhaar With Voter List Issued: Rijiju

The union government on Friday issued four notifications allowing the linking of electoral roll data with Aadhaar, making electoral law gender-neutral for service voters and enabling young citizens to register as voters four times a year instead of the present one. 

The notifications are part of the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 passed by Parliament late last year.

Kiren Rijiju, the Law Minister took to Twitter and wrote that the four notifications were issued after a discussion with the Election Commission (EC). The tweet shared by him comprised of a chart which mentioned that the notifications will allow users to link the electoral roll data with the Aadhaar system in order to avoid the chaos where the same person used to enrol at different places.

Further, he said that citizens who are 18 or have passed the mark on January 1, or 1 April, 1 July, or 1 October in a calendar year are eligible for immediate voter registration. These four dates will substantially boost the electorate.

Currently, the natives can just register on 1 January, to get the voting rights. The ones who reach the age of 18 on or before  1 January are allowed to register on the first day of January itself. The ones who are turning after that date will have to wait a year before they can register.

People serving abroad or serving in Indian missions are some of the people who are eligible to vote under the service voting system.

Moreover, while registering the word 'wife' will be switched with the word ‘spouse’, to make the status neutral so that spouses of service voters will be permitted to exercise their right to vote.

Rijiju said that with the new reform, the election commission can take over any space to store pole related materials and can make settlement arrangements for poll workers and security forces. It is a historic move taken by the Modi government.