CHENNAI: Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar on Friday said the distribution of PVC (a kind of plastic) Electors Photo Identity Cards would begin in Tamil Nadu for the first time, from the last week of July.
“Around 12 lakh voters who have been enrolled during the special drive ahead of the Lok Sabha elections will be issued the PVC cards, in the first phase. Those who apply hereafter will also be given PVC cards”, the CEO told mediapersons at the Secretariat.
Tender process for the production of PVC cards is in its final stage, the CEO said and added that the procedure for replacing the black and white EPIC cards already issued to the voters would be announced by the Election Commission in due course.
“The PVC cards would have some security features including a hologram with coded details of the voter, to prevent duplication, tampering and forgery,” CEO said.
According to the specifications for the PVC cards, the front side of the card would have security features including spiral micro letters line (EPIC) in art screen, three colour guilloche design besides the National Emblem with guilloche design for invisible printing which can be seen by ultra violet light. The National Emblem printed on the upper left hand corner and Election Commission of India logo printed on the upper right hand corner in colour Relief tint of “Election Commission of India” in English and Tamil.
Tripura was the first State to introduce the PVC cards on November 30, 2013. Following that, such cards were issued to voters in certain pockets of the country including Andhra Pradesh, Assam and Puducherry.
The Election Commission of India had started the scheme of issuing photo identity cards to the voters in the year 1993 with an objective to ensure easy identification of the electors at the time of voting. In view of the major advances in the technology in the last 12 years, the ECI has issued fresh directions to ensure better quality cards with stricter security features.