BENGALURU: The State Election Commission has begun the process of issuing notices via India Post to 36 lakh voters whose names have been duplicated across electoral rolls. Additionally, it is also dispatching 40 lakh Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs) through Speed Post for the upcoming Parliamentary elections next year. This follows an MoU signed earlier between the Postal department and the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka for booking and delivery of EPICs and notices.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, Manoj Kumar Meena told TNIE that the double entries for a single individual were found even within the same constituency. “We are keen to remove any kind of duplication of voters across the state and have issued notices to all voters whose names keep figuring more than once in our list,” he said.
Chief Postmaster General (CPMG), Karnataka Circle, K Prakash said the booking of notices to public from the Election Commission has commenced in more than 150 Post Offices in the state. “These notices deal with deletion of multiple entries and of voters who have relocated out of the State but whose names are still present in our rolls. We have received bookings of 4.5 lakh notices within a week’s time. We have been told that approximately 36 lakh notices are expected to be booked by the Commission. They will all be delivered within a short period,” he said. The maximum number of notices booked as of now are for Bengaluru South, Prakash added.
The CEO said that 11.55 lakh EPICs have been issued by the Commission from June to September this year after the state elections were held. As on date, roughly 32 lakh voter ID cards have been issued in Karnataka, he said. The CPMG added that the booking of the EPICs and notices have been permitted at 84 Electoral Registration Office (ERO) locations across the State.