EC to complete linking Aadhar with photo ID cards by August

Guwahati, Mar 24: The Election Commission of India today said it would complete linking of Aadhaar numbers with voter photo identity cards across the country, except North East, by August this year.

"By May, the Southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala and Goa will complete the linking. This will be first time in India. This will completely eliminate duplication of 85 crore Indian voters," Chief Election Commissioner H S Brahma told reporters here.

The linking of the two cards was expected to clear 6-8 per cent duplication in the electoral rolls, he said. Referring to the Assembly polls in Assam next year, he said the EC has initiated the process to update the voter list.

"The Assembly polls in Assam are due before May 2016. In any election, the first allegation against the Election Commission is about the non-purified rolls. So before one year, we start purifying the electoral rolls," he said. The agency's updating process is an ongoing work with addition, deletion and correction of the data in voters list, he added.

"In Assam, 95 per cent of the 1.9 crore voters have been issued photo identity cards. By July, we will issue cards to all the voters," Brahma said, adding the agency would ensure that there would be no duplication of voters.

He said the ECI had launched a portal in January this year for the voters updating and correcting the information themselves.