Tripura: 99.60 pc voters get photo identity card

Agartala, July 23: Tripura government published its final photo electoral rolls covering 19.97 lakh electorates for 60 Assembly segments last week.

According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) GSG Ayyanger, the state had 20.05 lakh voters with 2007 as base year while only 19.97 lakh electorates had been provided with Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) in the first phase.

The EPIC coverage in the state is the highest in India with 99.60 per cent while Kerala comes second with 99.38 per cent coverage, Mr Ayyanger said adding that the steps were taken to achieve cent per cent EPIC coverage.

He said only 7,947 voters were yet to get EPIC and the department had decided to issue their EPIC before the next assembly election.

The draft photo electoral rolls were published in February last with 20.24 lakh voters and 74,017 fresh names were included in the rolls during summary revision while 92,346 names were deleted.

Election Commission of India has made EPIC mandatory for casting votes in the next assembly elections in Tripura, slated for early next year.

UNI