The Election Commission of India has asked Aam Aadmi Party to stop collecting voter identification details of families of school students. Raising strong reservations, the EC has ordered AAP to suspend the voter details collection exercise as per an Indian Express report.
However, Delhi Deputy CM Manish Sisodia has called EC’s directive ‘illegal’. In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat last week, Sisodia has declined to heed EC’s order. He has has also advised the Directorate of Education not to follow the EC order.
In September, Delhi government had sought information of students as well as their parents and families including voter ID details, aadhaar card, etc. In a move that seemed like breach of privacy, the data was reportedly to be shared with private agency for verification, digitisation and analysis.
Despite concerns raised by many, the Delhi Government issued another directive through its Directorate of Education in October, affirming that the collection will ‘help in generating a data bank of students’ of the city to check their residential address. The notice also contended that its study will serve multiple purposes of the administration like short and long-term planning.