HYDERABAD: Nearly 15 to 20 lakh people who have enrolled as voters across Telangana are waiting for their Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) from the Union government’s Common Service Centres (CSCs). CSC centres have stopped issuing EPICs due to a lack of infrastructure.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had last year partnered with CSCs and had provided access to them to issue the EPICs. Subsequently, access was denied to the centres due to technical reasons and hasn’t been restored yet.
Earlier, EPICs were generally issued through e-Seva and MeeSeva centres and this was a hassle-free process. However, permission to these centres to download EPICs was stopped about 10 months ago, resulting in voters running from pillar to post.
Officials sources told Express that lakhs of voters, including newly-enrolled ones, are being turned away from MeeSeva and eSeva centres as they do not have access to download and print the EPICs.
The ECI had provided access to CSC centres through the Digital Seva Portal in September 2021 for about one or two months. However, the service was stopped as the centres lacked the infrastructure to print 1 to 2 lakh EPICs.
Considering the fact that EPICs were successfully being issued to voters by MeeSeva and eSeva centres without any problems for the last 10 to 15 years, authorities feel that these centres should once again be allowed to issue the cards.
One of the roles of the office of the CEO is preparing and updating electoral rolls and issuing EPICs from time to time.
Voter ID card serves as an identification proof for Indians over the age of 18, apart from allowing citizens to cast their vote in municipal, state and national elections.
After Aadhaar, an EPIC is an important document to avail various schemes like pensions, bank accounts, correction in Aadhaar etc.
Attempts by Express to obtain an official version failed to evoke a response from senior officials of the State poll panel.
Utilisation of truly ‘EPIC’ proportions
Voter ID card serves as an identification proof for Indians over the age of 18. After Aadhaar, an EPIC is used to avail various schemes like pensions, bank accounts, correction in Aadhaar etc.