[Parliament Winter Session] No proposal for e-voting in general elections: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju

No proposal has been received from the Election Commission of India (ECI) to introduce online voting in the upcoming general elections, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju told the parliament on Friday. .Rijiju was responding to an unstarred question by BJP Member of Parliament from Rajasthan, Dushyant Singh, on day five of the winter session of Parliament. Singh in his question had asked whether Central government was aware of phone-app based experiment in Telangana on voting, and whether it has received any proposal to introduce e-voting in the upcoming general elections. "No such proposal has been received from the Election Commission of India and therefore, the question of resources employed for the same does not arise," Rijiu's reply stated.It was also mentioned that the ECI has no data with it on the use of block chain technology in conducting elections in foreign countries. .A petition is pending before the Supreme Court seeking introduction of e-voting by means of a "secured remote electronic voting system" which would allow citizens to cast their vote virtually..The petition filed by a native of Kerala, K Sathyan, represented by advocate Kaleeswaram Raj, has said the electoral law needs to be brought in tune with the modern times and technology.The petition has also sought directions to ensure fairer election process by providing double databases for transactions namely, central database and a local database to reduce chances of manipulation of data and Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).The petition has further prayed that an OTP based system for fault free identification of voters be evolved and also sought installation of CCTVs in all polling booths across the country.The Supreme Court had issued notice to the Central government and ECI in the plea on in February this year.