BJP, Telangana Govt differ over FRC use in SIR

metro india news I hyderabad

Telangana BJP president N Ramchander Rao on Thursday welcomed the EC's clarification that the FRC introduced by the state government cannot be used as identity proof during the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls. He alleged that the Congress was attempting to facilitate the inclusion of ‘illegal aliens’ in the electoral rolls through the Family Register Certificate.

"Congress, BRS and MIM must at least now stop sheltering illegal vote banks and stop finding new ways to legitimise illegals," he claimed, in a post on X. Election Commission authorities on Wednesday said the Telangana government's Family Register Certificate would not be accepted as identity proof during the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls.

A senior official said that the EC had informed the office of the Telangana Chief Electoral Officer that the FRC would not be accepted as valid identity proof for the SIR.

Last month, the state government constituted a state-wide electronic Telangana Family Register and introduced a facility to obtain a Family Register Certificate through the MeeSeva platform. It is a flagship e-governance initiative of the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments.

According to a government order, the Family Register was introduced to facilitate the delivery of citizen services, ensure uniformity in the verification of family particulars and provide an easily accessible record.

Telangana to seek legal opinion on EC's stance

The Telangana government's Advisor on minority affairs Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Thursday said the state government would seek legal opinion on the Election Commission's clarification that the newly-introduced Family Register Certificate (FRC) would not be an ID proof for SIR.

Shabbir said the state government respects the constitutional authority of the Election Commission, but the reasoning equating the FRC with a ration card required careful legal examination.

The government would explore all legally permissible options to ensure that genuine voters, particularly poor and vulnerable sections, are not subjected to avoidable hardship during the SIR, he said in a statement.

"Ration cards are not casual or private documents. They are issued by the government after a prescribed process and verification," he said.

The Centre and state governments themselves rely upon the ration card system to identify crores of beneficiaries and provide food grains under statutory food-security programmes. Therefore, the underlying government database cannot simply be viewed with "suspicion" when the same state-authenticated information is used for electoral verification, he said.

"The Telangana Government will not seek any dilution of genuine verification. Our effort will be to find a legally sustainable solution that makes verification easier for genuine citizens, especially the poor, while fully preserving the integrity of the electoral rolls," Shabbir said.

Election authorities said on Wednesday that the Telangana government's Family Register Certificate will not be accepted as identity proof during the ongoing SIR of the electoral roll.

Last month, the state government constituted a state-wide electronic Telangana Family Register and introduced a facility to issue a Family Register Certificate through the MeeSeva platform.