EC faces challenge to hold UP poll on EPIC

Lucknow, Mar 19 (UNI) The Election Commission is facing a tough challenge in holding the Uttar Pradesh assembly poll with compulsory Election Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) as only 83 per cent of the 115 million voters have been issued the card.

UP additional chief electoral officer Mritunjay Narain said here today as per the latest information 83.78 per cent of the total voters have been given EPICs.

Maintaining that the EC was adamant on conducting the poll on EPICs, the officer said it was up to the commission to decide the issue.

The EC has also directed the district authorities to continue distribution and photography for EPICs till the day they can provide the electorate with the card before polling.

Mr Narain said the EC had also instructed to enroll new voters after thorough probe till the last date of filing of nomination in the seven phase assembly poll, while all cautions be maintained in deleting names from the roll.

Meanwhile, deputy election commissioner R Bhattacharya today held a meeting and reviewed poll preparation with the officials of nine districts, where election is due in the fifth phase in 58 assembly seats.

The EC representative was not reportedly satisified with the progress of EPICs in these district where the average is around 80 per cent.

Mr Bhattacharya also reviewed the security arrangements and asked the officials of Pratapgarh and other sensitive districts to maintain law and order in the polling process.

On the other hand, EC today held training programme for the Returning Officers (ROs) and Assistant ROs of 57 assembly seats for the third phase.

State chief electoral officer Anuj Kumar Bishnoi held meeting with the representatives of political parties and Doordarshan and Akashwani over the fixing of time slot for political party speeches.

March 21 has been fixed for the lottery to decide the time slot of the political parties.

As per the new EC directive, now only one polling agent of a political party would be allowed inside the polling booth at a time, whereas two agents would be allowed for one political party per booth.

This time, the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) would be equipped with time stamped feature as the machine will record the time of voting of each voter and it can be deleted only after five yrs.

UNI