Identical EPIC Number
Why in News?
- Chief Minister of west bengal has accused the Election Commission of India (ECI) of facilitating voter duplication by allowing the same Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) numbers for multiple voters across different states.
- The Election Commission of India (ECI) clarified that identical EPIC numbers exist due to past decentralized systems but do not imply fake voters.
ERONET — Electoral Roll Management
ERONET is a national-level web-based platform developed by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to manage registration, migration, and deletion of names from electoral rolls, automating the electoral roll process in multiple languages and scripts.
Its main features and purpose include:
- Unified management of electoral roll processes across all states and union territories.
- Online form processing for new voter registrations, deletions, modifications, and migration between constituencies.
- Role-based access for different levels of election officers, including BLOs (Booth Level Officers), AEROs (Assistant Electoral Registration Officers), EROs (Electoral Registration Officers), and higher-level administrators.
- Security features such as dual authentication, OTP verification, and a strict password policy (change required every 90 days, alphanumeric, special characters, etc.).
- Vibrant dashboard, notifications, audit trails, group-wise validation of forms, and user management with approvals for profile edits and new users.
- Transparency and accountability in the digitization and management of voter information.
- Brokers both online and offline form processing, aiming for uniformity and accuracy in voter data nationwide.
- A related ERONET App is available for ECI officers for tasks such as form processing, user management, and monitoring application status
What Is an EPIC Number?
- The Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number is a unique alphanumeric code assigned to every registered voter in India. Its purpose is to uniquely identify electors and ensure the integrity of the voting process.
- To Ensure constituency-level uniqueness, functional Unique Serial Number (FUSN) is added.
Why Do Identical EPIC Numbers Occur?
- Before 2015, the EPIC issuing process was decentralized: different states and Union Territories created EPICs with their own numbering systems.
- This sometimes led to identical EPIC numbers being allocated to separate voters in different states or constituencies, though not within the same constituency.
Issuance and Digital Management: The EPIC number is generated via ERONET.
Two Voters can have the Same EPIC Number
- Yes, but only across different states due to past manual allocation before the ERONET system.
- The ECI has pledged to rectify all cases of duplicate EPIC numbers using the enhanced ERONET 2.0 platform to systematically reissue unique EPIC numbers to affected electors.
In summary: Identical EPIC numbers were a result of manual, decentralized voter ID issuance historically used by different states. Though they do not affect voting rights or create fake voters, the Election Commission of India has rectified the issue, ensuring each voter now has a unique EPIC number aligned with their constituency and polling details, safeguarding electoral integrity.
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