Chennai: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed that all electors will have to produce the Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) for their identification at the polling station before casting their votes in the 6 April elections to the Tamilnadu Assembly.
Those electors who are not able to produce the EPIC can produce any one of the 11 alternative photo identity documents for establishing their identity before casting their vote, Chief Electoral Officer Satyabrata Sahoo said in a release here.
The 11 documents are Aadhaar Card, MNREGA Job Card, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, Driving Licence, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, Indian Passport, Pension document with photograph, Service Identity Cards with photograph issued to employees by Central/State Government PSUs/Public Limited Companies and Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs.
The ECI has decided to issue ‘Voter Information Slip’ to the voters in place of Photo Voter Slip.
The Voter Information Slip will include information like Polling Station, Date and Time of the poll etc., but not the photograph of the voter.
Accordingly, all the District Election Officers have been directed to distribute the Voter Information Slip at least five days before the date of poll to all enrolled electors.
It is also clarified that if any elector uses an EPIC Card issued by the Electoral Registration Officer of another Assembly Constituency, such cards shall also
be taken into account provided the name of that elector finds place in the electoral roll pertaining to the polling station.
The possession of EPIC or other form of identity prescribed by the Commission above will not entitle a person to exercise his/her vote, unless his/her name is found in the Electoral Rolls supplied to the Polling Station, Sahoo said.