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Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021: What are its key features? Is it mandatory to link Aadhaar with Voter ID card? | All Explained

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed on Monday in Lok Sabha. The electoral commission has been pushing for the voluntary connection of Aadhaar with Voter ID since 2015.

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Election Laws (Amendment) Bill 2021

The Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 was passed on Monday in Lok Sabha. The law that seeks changes of four electoral reforms, including linking of Aadhaar cards with voter ID cards was passed in the Lok Sabha amid a ruckus with Opposition members fiercely condemning the bill and urging the government to withdraw it.

What are the key features of the Election Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021?

  1. Firstly, the bill seeks to propose a voluntary link between the electoral roll and the Aadhaar card in order to eliminate double enrolments. Once enacted, electoral registration authorities would be able to ask for the Aadhaar number of anyone who wishes to register as a voter. To verify the identification, officials would ask for the Aadhaar card number.

    The bill also proposes allowing electoral registration authorities to request Aadhaar numbers from people already on the electoral record. This will be done to verify the entries in the electoral register, as well as to identify the registration of the same person’s name in the electoral roll of more than one constituency or the registration of the same name in the same constituency more than once.

  1. Secondly, the system requires voters to wait a year to use their voting rights if they were unable to register on January 1st (of the year of revision of electoral roll). With the passing of the electoral reform, there will be four options to register to vote each year. As of now, January 1 of every year is the sole qualifying date. The qualifying dates for the production or modification of electoral rolls will henceforth be the first day of January, the first day of April, the first day of July, and the first day of October of a calendar year.
  2. Thirdly, the bill proposes to change the word wife to spouse in order to gender-neutralize the 1951 Representation of the People Act. According to the electoral law, an Army officer’s wife is eligible to register as a service voter, but her husband is not. This will change now that wife has been substituted with spouse.
  3. Lastly, the bill gives the officials all the authority they need to take over any place for electoral purposes. Taking control of schools and other critical institutions during election season was met with some opposition.

Read Also: LIVE Top News Today: Trinamool Congress leading on 119 out of 144 seats of Kolkata Municipal Corporation election

Is it mandatory to link the Aadhaar card with the Voter ID card?

The electoral commission has been pushing for the voluntary connection of Aadhaar with Voter ID since 2015. As a result, the National Electoral Law Purification and Authentication Programme was established to link the Aadhaar number to the voter ID number. However, the EC’s attempt to connect UIDAI (Aadhaar) numbers with voters’ electoral data to check for repeated entries in electoral registers has been halted due to a Supreme Court order.

The Supreme Court decided that the collection of Aadhaar numbers requires legislative approval, thus the commission proposed modifications to election legislation. If approved by Parliament, linking electoral ID with Aadhaar might become mandatory.

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Rahul Gandhi warns ED, CBI of strong action whenever government changes

The Congress leader’s statement follows after the Income Tax department’s fresh notices asking the party to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore.

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Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused central agencies of working at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre and warned them that strict action will be taken against these institutions when the government changes.

The senior Congress leader asserted that if the institutions had done their jobs properly there would have been no problem. He added that these agencies should think that some day the BJP government will change and after that there will be action. He further said that it is his guarantee that the action will be so strong that no institution will dare to do such things again.

Taking to social media platform X, Rahul Gandhi wrote that when the government changes, action will definitely be taken against those who destroyed the democracy. Mentioning that it is his guarantee, Rahul Gandhi said that such actions will be taken that no one will dare to do all this again.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s statement follows after the income tax department’s fresh notices asking the party to pay Rs 1,823.08 crore. The party has accused the ruling BJP of indulging in tax terrorism to financially cripple the opposition party ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

While addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters along with Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh, party treasurer Ajay Maken alleged that the BJP is in serious violation of income-tax laws. He said the I-T department should raise a demand of Rs 4,617.58 crore from the saffron party for such violations.

Ajay Maken said that the income-tax returns filed by Congress for eight years have been reopened on baseless and manufactured grounds to levy illegal I-T demand orders totalling thousands of crores of rupees. He stated that the timing of the I-T department’s action in February and March, days before and even days after the Lok Sabha election were announced on March 16, speaks for itself about the mala-fide nature of these actions.

Furthermore, the opposition party will hold nationwide protests over the weekend against fresh income tax demand of over Rs 1,800 crore, which it has described as an egregious attack on democracy and imposition of tax terrorism amid the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

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Jammu and Kashmir: 10 killed as taxi rolls into gorge at Ramban, PM Modi announces ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh

Ramban deputy magistrate said that it was pitch dark and raining heavily when the accident occurred near Battery Chashma around 1.15am.

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In an unfortunate incident, ten passengers were killed when a taxi veered off the road amid heavy rain and fell into a gorge in Ramban district on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway early on Friday.

Baseer-ul-haq, Ramban deputy magistrate said that it was pitch dark and raining heavily when the accident occurred near Battery Chashma around 1.15am. He added that while the vehicle, believed to be a Chevrolet Tavera, has not been traced yet, 10 bodies have been recovered from the steep slope from where it went down 500 metres.

Police along with quick reaction teams, the local tehsildar, assistant commissioner, revenue, and other officials were at the spot supervising rescue work. Reports said that two identity cards were recovered from two bodies. 

The bodies were identified as taxi driver Balwan Singh, 47, of Amb Gharota in Jammu district, and Vipin Mukhiya, of Bhairagang in West Champaran district of Bihar. The identified bodies were taken to Ramban district hospital. Police asserted the taxi was on its way to Kashmir from Jammu.

Expressing grief over the accident in Ramban, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh from PMNRF, which would be given to the next of kin of each deceased. Furthermore, the injured would be given Rs 50,000.  PM Narendra Modi also extended condolences to the bereaved families and prayed for a quick recovery of the injured. 

Taking to social media platform X, President Droupadi Murmu said that the news of many people getting killed after a vehicle fell into a ditch in Ramban area on Jammu-Srinagar National Highway is very sad. She also offered condolences to the bereaved families.

Earlier, Jammu and Kashmir police shared on social media platform that a passenger taxi rolled down a deep gorge on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway near Battery Chashma in Ramban area. It added that Police, SDRF and civil QRT Ramban reached on spot, rescue operation is going on.

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Hardeep Singh Puri says Sunita Kejriwal is preparing to hold Delhi CM post like Rabri Devi

The Union Minister was speaking to the media during the inauguration of Delhi BJP’s election office along with leaders including Delhi BJP Chief Virendra Sachdeva and Bansuri Swaraj.

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Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Friday compared Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, hinting that she may be gearing up to take on her husband’s post. The Union Minister was speaking to the media during the inauguration of Delhi BJP’s election office.

The BJP leader further took a dig at Delhi Chief Minister for forming an alliance with the most corrupt party against whom they had started an anti-corruption movement with social activist Anna Hazare. The minister made the statement in response to a question regarding Sunita Kejriwal, who earlier today launched a whatsapp campaign advocating for support for her husband, who is in ED custody in connection with the Excise policy case.

In a video Sunita Kejriwal said her husband has challenged the most corrupt and dictatorial forces in the country and asked people to support her husband through their prayers and blessings. She issued 2 WhatsApp numbers 8297324624 and 9700297002 through which people can send their blessings, prayers or any other messages to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo and she will communicate those to him.

She said yesterday Kejriwal had presented his side in the court, and the entire country heard it. She requested the people to listen to it if they had not listened till now. She added whatever Kejriwal had said in front of the court required a lot of courage. She said her husband is a true patriot. She requested the people to participate in the Kejriwal ko Aashirwad campaign.

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari also took a dig at Aam Aami Party asking why only Kejriwal’s wife is coming out in his support, and not the people of Delhi. He said the Honorable Justice of High Court said they cannot stop Arvind Kejriwals’ arrest that they are surprised why he hasn’t been arrested yet?

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