The Election Commission of India (EC) has granted voters whose photos are not available in electoral rolls in some polling booths of Chennai, Kancheepuram and Madurai to bring originals of any of the 13 alternative documents to prove their identity at the time of voting.
A release from Praveen Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer, stated that voters slip would not have photos of those electors whose photos were not available in the electoral rolls (applicable only to some polling booths of Chennai, Kancheepuram and Madurai). For identification, they could bring any of the following documents:
Passport, driving licence (issued up to February 28, 2011), PAN cards, service identity cards, passbooks (of banks, post offices and kisan passbooks with photographs), pension documents, freedom fighter ID card, property documents, SC/ST/OBC certificates, arms licenses, certificate of physical handicap, job cards under NREGA, health insurance scheme smart cards (all the above said documents should have photographs).
Only the originals would be accepted and not photo copies, he said. Any of the above mentioned documents available only to a member of the family could be used for identifying the other members of the family provided all of them come together and are identified by each member.
All other voters should bring either EPIC card or voters slip. The alternative documents would not apply to them and they would not be able to vote without either the EPIC card or voters slip, Mr. Kumar said.
He also clarified that mere possession of EPIC cards or any other form of identity prescribed by the EC would not entitle a person to exercise his vote, unless his name was found in the electoral rolls supplied to the polling station.
Voter's slip
For electors who had not received the voter's slip so far, it would be issued at the respective polling station locations on April 10 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. by the respective booth-level officer.
The electors should use the opportunity to get the voter's slip, he said.
