‘Decades-long’ duplicate voter I card numbers issue to be addressed in 3 months, says EC
NEW DELHI, March 7: The issue of duplicate voter ID numbers is set to be raised in the upcoming session of Parliament, with MPs from the Trinamool Congress as well as other opposition parties submitting notices, demanding a discussion on the matter in the House, a source said.
According to the source, the MPs of the TMC as well as other opposition parties have submitted multiple notices in both Houses, demanding a discussion on the issue under different rules like short-duration discussion, Zero Hour and calling attention.
“In a collaborative way, multiple notices have been given. Some notices have been signed by more than one MPs. The issue should be discussed in Parliament, it is a very serious matter,” the source said.
The issue of duplicate voter ID card numbers was raised by West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee last week.
Amid allegations of a cover-up over duplicate voter identity card numbers, the Election Commission (EC) on Friday said it will address the “decades-long” matter in the next three months.
TMC MP Saket Gokhale said the EC has finally admitted and accepted its guilt that duplicate Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers have been allotted to multiple people.
The first half of the Budget session of Parliament was held from January 31 to February 13. The second half starts on Monday and will conclude on April 4.
EC RESPONDS
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has finally “admitted and accepted” their guilt, said the Trinamool Congress (TMC) as the poll panel issued a second statement over the issue of duplication of voter ID card numbers.
“The ECI has finally admitted and accepted their guilt that duplicate EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card) numbers have been allotted to multiple people. All of this has happened because (West Bengal) CM Mamata Banerjee nailed the lies of the ECI & exposed this scam,” TMC Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale said in a post on X shortly after the poll panel released a statement saying it will address the “decades-long” matter in the next three months.
“After being in denial, the ECI now says it will ‘fix the issue’ in just three months. It has also given a very unconvincing explanation that “this duplication of EPIC has happened since the year 2000 due to registration officers using incorrect alphanumeric series”,” he said.
Gokhale questioned how an “incorrect series” was allegedly used when ECI’s Handbook for Electoral Registration Officers has clear guidelines, and asked about the fate of the software that was supposed to catch this.
He asked if the ECI said this had been happening since 2000, why nothing was done for 25 years until Banerjee pointed it out.
“Why hasn’t ECI still revealed how many duplicate EPICs currently exist? This is the second eyewash in a week being passed off as a ‘clarification’ by ECI,” he said.
“What is the ECI hiding and who are they trying to protect? This is a scam & answers must be given,” he added.
In a statement, the poll authority said India’s electoral rolls are the biggest database of electors across the globe with over 99 crore registered voters.
It said since the allotment of EPIC series in the year 2000 to the states and Union Territories (UTs), some Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) did not use the correct series.
The ECI said the issue of allotment of duplicate numbers due to incorrect series across states and UTs could not have been detected as the states and UTs were independently managing the electoral roll databases.
The poll authority said it has now decided to resolve this “long-pending issue” after detailed discussions within the technical teams and concerned state chief electoral officers in the next three months. (PTI)