The government has moved to amend the Aadhaar Act to legally empower the Election Commission to link the unique identification number with the electoral roll, which would remove bogus and duplicate entries and pave the way for giving “remote” voting rights to migrant voters.
The law ministry is working on a note to be put up before the Union Cabinet for the decision which, apart from sanitising the electoral roll, will save migrants from what amounts to “disenfranchisement” by changing the current practice where they can vote only if they are in the constituency where they are registered as voters.
The ministry conveyed this to the Election Commission at a meeting on Tuesday to discuss electoral reforms. At the meeting between top EC functionaries and the law secretary, chief election commissioner Sunil Arora stressed on the need for the law ministry to fast-track implementation of reforms proposed by the poll panel as far back as 2004-05 and also hold regular discussions with the EC to review progress.
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