Suvendu Raymohapatra, TNN | Jul 2, 2015, 03.39PM IST
BHADRAK: Under the Election Commissions' National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP), voter identity cards are being linked with Aadhaar numbers in Odisha.
The programme, which commenced on May 18, is running at a snail's pace in Bhadrak as only six data entry operators are entrusted with linking cards of 10,85,488 voters in the district.
According to official sources, of the voters, six lakh have been given Aadhaar cards. But a recent survey, conducted by the district administration, said only 74,608 voter-Aadhaar link forms have been so far collected by the booth level election officers for the ongoing programme. The deadline is July 30.
"The target can never be achieved due to staff shortage. The six data entry operators, with only three computers, have been able to feed only 35,000 forms into the election portal in the last one month since an operator is found to be feeding around 300 to 350 forms a day. If the government really wants to achieve the target, then it should increase the number of staff," said Riaz Ahmed, director of a leading NGO in Bhadrak.
"We have decided to engage more number of data entry operators and organize special camps to collect at least 3.5 lakh forms each month to achieve the target," said Ajay Kumar Jena, sub-collector-cum-election officer, Bhadrak.
The commission, under the NERPAP, wants to have a clean electoral roll without errors, defects and multiple entries. Feeding of Aadhaar number in electoral data base will be done through a national voters' service portal, using web services through the commission's website, the sources said.