Voter ID cards to be available by assembly polls: district election department

With nearly four lakh cards to be readied before the elections,only 2.5 lakh cards have been issued. “The lack of required software from the agency appointed by the election commission caused the problem,’’she said.

The software was to help associate the old serial numbers with the new numbers of the voters whose photograph is available with the election department. Due to the delimitation exercise,the serial numbers of the voters have changed and in the absence of the software,a mismatch would occur between the photograph on the card and the details of the voter. With 58.96 lakh voters registered for Pune district and photo id cards issued to 29.67 lakh voters,the election officer had planned to distribute 4 lakh cards until the day of voting if the necessary software was made available. The election department officials had finished the scanning work for the 4 lakh identity cards but the cards were not ready for the Lok Sabha polls.

The EPIC is mandatory for elections. The Election Commission in its note declaring the elections noted that the photo electoral roll facilitated the easy identification of voters.