1.38 cr voters in AP do not have EPIC: CEO

Hyderabad, Aug 2 (UNI) A whopping 1.38 crore of the 5.50 crore voters in Andhra Pradesh are without Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC), State Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao said today.

Addressing a press conference a day after the publication of draft electoral rolls here, he said the Election Commission, which held a door-to-door survey to provide EPIC for all eligible voters, provided EPIC for an additional 29 lakh voters.

In all, 2.78 crore female voters and 2.71 crore male voters were provided with EPIC so far, he added.

Mr Rao, who earlier held an all-party meeting, said copies of the draft rolls were distributed to representatives of all the parties in the form of compact discs.

The draft rolls were uploaded on the Election Commission's website and also made available in all Village Panchayats and 16,000 Post Offices across the state to enable those, who were left out to fill relevant form for inclusion of their names before the Electoral Registration Officer before August 20, he said.

The Commission had decided to designate the 1,200 Mandal headquarters as the centres for issuance of EPIC on a continuous basis.

The exercise would continue even after the publication of final rolls on September 15, so that a maximum number of voters get the EPIC before the next Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, he said.

After delimitation of constitutencies, as many as 9,049 polling stations were added to the existing 55,974 polling stations.

UNI SM VA SBC UCS1835