New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has resolved to remove duplicate Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers within three months, said an official Thursday, reaffirming plans to begin talks with the UIDAI for linking voter cards with Aadhaar numbers.
The poll panel has also identified urban apathy as a challenge and to boost voting in these areas it plans to open polling stations within the premise of high-rise buildings and colonies, an official said.
Apart from planning digital training for capacity augmentation of nearly 1 crore election officials, the ECI planned 5,000 all-party meetings as part of steps to strengthen election processes during the past month, the official said.
To ensure the participation of political parties in all aspects of the election processes, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, during the CEO conference March 4, directed those regular all-party meetings and interactions be held by all the 36 CEOs, 788 DEOs, 4,123 EROs to resolve any outstanding issues raised by the political parties.
This process will be completed pan India by March 31, 2025, said the official in a statement.
The Commission has also offered to train political party representatives and their Booth Level Agents on processes as per electoral laws, including claims and objections to the voter list, the statement said.
The ECI has also invited suggestions from political parties on matters concerning the conduct of elections and they can send these by April 30, 2025, it said.
“The parties have also been extended an invitation to meet the Commission in Delhi at a mutually convenient time,” said the official.
In less than a month of the assumption of charge as the 26th CEC, Gyanesh Kumar, along with Election Commissioners, Dr Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Dr Vivek Joshi, has put the entire election machinery, right up to the BLO level, on a path for promoting participation of all electors and ensuring a pleasant experience for them at the polling, the statement said.
Earlier, a 10-member delegation of the Trinamool Congress MPs met the ECI on the issue of the bogus voters in West Bengal and raised questions on the duplicate EPIC numbers allegedly in use in the country.
The delegation, consisting of both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members of Trinamool Congress, submitted a memorandum to the ECI seeking the exact number of EPIC cards with duplicate numbers prevailing in the country and their state-wise breakup.
Over 7.5 crore voters in West Bengal are likely to pick 294 new legislators around April-May next year. In the 2021 Assembly polls, the TMC won 215 seats in the House with 148 as the majority mark.
Last month, Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, accused the ECI of not sharing the electoral rolls for the Lok Sabha election 2024 and the voter list for the Maharashtra Assembly elections, raising suspicion of the addition of bogus voters.
Raising doubts about alleged bungling in the voters’ list for the 2024 Maharashtra Assembly election, which was won by the BJP-led Mahayuti, LoP Gandhi alleged that as many as 39 lakh voters were added to the list after the Lok Sabha elections in 2024, in just six months.
IANS
