Cabinet Clears Draft Bill To Link Aadhaar & Voter ID

Will Be Voluntary; Part Of Proposed Electoral Reforms

- Bharti Jain

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared proposed amendments to the electoral law seeking to bring in key reforms such as voluntary linkage of voter ID with Aadhaar card so as to weed out bogus and duplicate entries in electoral rolls.

Another reform sought to be implemented is on allowing multiple qualifying dates in a year, rather than only January 1, for those above 18 years, to register themselves as voters, sources said. The draft bill to amend the Representation of the People Act (RPA), approved by the Cabinet and likely to be brought before Parliament in the winter session, also purportedly proposes to make gender-neutral a provision allowing only the wife of a male service voter to register as a voter in the same constituency as him.

A fourth likely amendment seeks to empower the Election Commission to requisition premises for any purpose related to election, not just for polling stations and storage of ballot boxes.

Move will boost EC plan to enable migrants vote