KOCHI: Lanky cheeks, convex teeth, obscure addresses, gloomy and cinder like faces are the images that might pop up in one’s mind when one thinks about a voter id card. But that’s history.
A complete makeover of the voter’s ID is just a click away as the Election Commission has come up with a novel facility for this transition. With this, the faded faces and unrecognisable features in the ID card, taken using the VGA camera years ago, would be replaced with vibrant and identifiable faces.
The facility will be available at the Election Commission’s official website, www.eci.nic.in, in the online registration tab or it can be available at the website of the respective chief election officer of every state. Keralites, can use their chief election officer’s website,www.ceo.kerla.gov.in/home.html, to upgrade or alter the old election card to get a new ‘smart voter id’.
All one has to do is to fill the columns, district of residence, date of birth and voter id details, by just clicking on the e-registration link in the latter website.
After completing the initial phase of providing details, the second step will direct the candidate to choose the correction that needs to be made and that leads to the third step where the applicant can edit personal information and make changes in the spelling of the name, date of birth, relation type, relation name and address.
Along with that, the applicant can add the contact numbers, email id and aadhar number too. A separate column ‘upload photo’, is available to upload the prescribed passport size photo.
After completing this, the system will generate an acknowledgment slip that needs to be submitted to the Booth Level Officer (BLO) on his visit for the verification of original proof.
On completing the verification, the Booth Level Officer will send a notification through message or post and later the ID can be collected based on the applicant’s convenience.
The Commission has also introduced a facility for lost ID cards where the applicant needs to submit a form named EPIC 001 to the Tahsildar with a fine of ` 25. The form will be available from the same website. People will get help desk support on working days from 10 am to 5 pm by dialling a toll free number 1950.