About 34 lakh Aadhaar card holders in West Bengal have been found to be ‘deceased’ since the identity card was introduced in January 2009, UIDAI authorities informed the Election Commission. The UIDAI authorities also communicated to the EC that about 13 lakh people in the state never possessed Aadhaar cards, but have since died.

The information was shared during a meeting between officials of UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) and the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manoj Kumar Agarwal, amid the ongoing enumeration exercise of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. The SIR process is currently in progress across West Bengal to root out dead and fake voters.