Duplicate entries in voters' list: Aadhar sharing to remain voluntary
New Delhi (PTI): As the Election Commission works to purify electoral rolls of duplicate entries, sources in the government asserted on Tuesday that Aadhaar sharing by voters on a voluntary basis as prescribed in the law will remain unaltered.
They underlined that sharing Aadhaar details with poll authorities is voluntary under the Election Laws (Amendment) Act, 2021 and it will continue to remain so.
The sources also noted that there is no plan to tweak the law or related rules in this regard.
They were responding to questions on whether there was a proposal to make Aadhaar sharing compulsory as also whether voters who don't share details will have to explain before poll authorities the reasons for not giving out details.
They said the ground rules will remain unaltered and no provision is proposed to be added as of now.
Amid a debate on the purity of electoral rolls, the Election Commission had said last month that the regular updating process of the voter list will be strengthened in close coordination with the birth and death registration authorities.
Technical consultations between the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and experts of the EC will begin soon on voter list-Aadhaar linkage, it had said, adding though an elector can only vote in the assigned polling booth and nowhere else, the poll body has resolved to remove duplicates countrywide and end a decades-long issue within three months.
"Regular updation of the voter list shall be strengthened in close coordination with the birth and death registration authorities," the EC had said.
According to the prevailing law, no entries in the electoral roll shall be deleted for inability of an individual to furnish or intimate Aadhaar number due to such sufficient cause as may be prescribed.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
