Election machinery ready to hold polls anytime after Sep

Hyderabad, Jun 20 (UNI) The Election machinery in Andhra Pradesh is fully geared up to hold the Lok Sabha polls anytime after September when the process of issuing Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) to an estimated 5.45 crore voters would be completed, State Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao said today.

Briefing newspersons on the two-day meeting held with Joint Collectors, the nodal officers for the mammoth exercise, he said ''We will take all necessary steps to ensure that not a single voter is denied EPIC or his or her name is deleted from the voters list.'' Non-Governmental Organisations, Self-Help Groups and Gram Panchayats would be involved in the process of conducting a ''social audit'' to ensure that names of all eligible people above 18 years were included after the enumeration was completed.

Stating that about 40 per cent of voters had been issued EPIC cards in five districts, Mr Rao wanted other districts to follow suit and ensure that the process was completed by August-end in all the constituencies except in the districts where byelections were held last month. The process would be completed a month later in other districts.

UNI SM ROY HS KN1904