The deadline to complete the Aadhaar-EPIC linkage has been extended by five days in the district after a review of some of the problems at the ground level, Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal has said.
Addressing the media here on Thursday, after reviewing the situation with the electoral returning officers of each constituency, the CEO noted that the response in the city was poor compared to the rural areas. It was poor in urban areas across the country, he added. He advised the District Collector to rope in residents’ welfare associations to increase compliance. The district, which has 34 lakh voters, has achieved 73 per cent linkage. Referring to some of the complaints of the booth level officers (BLOs) returning due to ‘locked houses’, the CEO said that the BLOs cannot visit homes of voters after 10 a.m. and expect the residents to be present. The BLOs would have to go early in the morning or late in the evening. He advised the Sub-Collector Paderu to conduct tom-toms in the villages to tell the residents to carry their Aadhaar card and EPIC card with them when they were going to attend the Sri Modakondamma festival so that they can do the linkage at the special camps at the festival venue.
Political parties too promised to participate in the campaign for “purification” of electoral rolls taken up by the Election Commission, Mr. Bhanwarlal said.
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“In the Telugu states, five districts have achieved more than 90 per cent linkage. Out of them, four are in Telangana – Nizamabad, Mahabubnagar, Adilabad, and Karimnagar – and only one – Krishna – is in Andhra Pradesh,” he said.
Collector N. Yuvaraj and additional joint collector D.V. Reddy were present.