Linking UID / Aadhaar & Voter IDs - A Whimsical Decision
The Election Commission of India (ECI) launched a program called, "Electoral Roll and Purification Authentication Programme" (NERPAP) on 3 Mar 2015. However, the decision to do so was announced by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) in a press meet at Hyderabad on 14 Feb 2015. This was reported in 'The Hindu' (among other news media).
The Link to the news item in 'The Hindu' is here.
RTI queries were sent to ECI seeking the reasons for the decision and whether any studies or investigations were done by ECI to test the advantage of linking UID / Aadhaar numbers with voter IDs. ECI was also asked to furnish copies of any minutes of meetings in which this decision was taken.
Here is the RTI query. Here is the reply link.
ECI was further asked whether the 42nd Report Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Report
To this ECI replied stating that no study has been done, no meeting minutes are available and that the decision has been taken to set up NERPAP.
It is indeed strange that a Constitutional authority takes such momentous decisions affecting the entire people of the Nation in so cavalier a manner.
What could be done to make such functionaries to act in a more responsible way?
