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ID cards soon for remaining voters

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI June 18. In an effort to reach the `left-out voters' the Election Commission will take up another round of issuing photo ID cards.

To eliminate the problems encountered previously, the cards will be issued `on line.'

``There will be no time lag between the time one is photographed and receives an identity card,'' said the Election Commissioner, B.B. Tandon, here today. Hence, a lot of problems could be solved, he added. The process will start in another two months.

At the national level, as much as 65 to 70 per cent of the voters have received their voter ID cards, he said. Pondicherry topped the list with 99 per cent coverage, while Andhra Pradesh was doing a good job of ensuring that as many voters as possible could be given the cards, he said. In Tamil Nadu, the coverage achieved was 68 per cent, but with the addition of new voters, this percentage has come down to 65.

The Election Commission has also instructed the Chief Electoral Officers in all States to rationalise polling stations in all constituencies so that there are not more than 1,500 voters in each station.

Political parties also were being consulted on this and a draft list of polling stations will be ready by July 15, he said.

``The Election Commission is always in a state of preparedness for elections,'' he said, when asked if the EC anticipated early elections to the Lok Sabha.

On the use of electronic voting machines for the next parliamentary polls, he said that if the elections were held as scheduled, then it was possible to have EVMs in all constituencies.

The EC had placed orders with two public sector undertakings and they would supply the machines in a phased manner to the Commission.

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