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Sunday, December 4, 2011

Apply online, get your voter ID in a month


Are you above 18 but not one among the voters? Do you want to avoid standing in long queues to apply for your voter ID? Here's an easy way.
Within two months, you can apply for your electoral photo identity card (EPIC) card online __ something as easy as booking an e-ticket. The move will cover 12 lakh voters in Bangalore who are above 18.


  "Karnataka will be the first state in the country to go online. With this, application for correction of name and age, and for addition and deletion of names from the list, can also be made online," Karnataka's joint chief electoral officer T Shamaiah told STOI.
Microsoft Corp and Tata Consultancy Services have provided technical support to the project.
Eligible voters can get EPIC within a month, as against nearly nine months now. "The move is to digitize the system and make it faster," said Shamaiah.
An applicant will get mobile updates on the status of her application.
Among Bangalore's voters, 70% have EPIC as against 94% in other districts. In Karnataka, 87% of the voters are EPIC holders.
HOW TO APPLY?
Log on to http://ceokarnataka.kar.nic.in, the official website of Karnataka's chief electoral officer, and click on the link for online Form 6 applications. Once name, email ID and mobile number are provided, a unique login number and password will be provided to a new user. The user will then have to log on with the provided login number and password, and fill Form 6 online. A scan of a passport-size photograph must be attached.
"Though the application can be filed online, hard copies of address proof and identity proof have to be sent to a nearby voters' facilitation centre. Booth-level officials will verify the documents and may conduct physical verification.... With this, the entire process of electoral identification can be done within a month. EPIC will be despatched to the applicant by post, or it can be collected from the booth-level office," Shamaiah said. Online submission of Form 6 will be enabled shortly.
ISSUES OF ADDRESS AND NAME
Names are a big issue in Bangalore, say election staff. "EPIC has to be in two languages. Mistakes occur when a name written in English is transcribed to Kannada, or vice-versa. Bangalore has migrants, and their names are tricky to be written in two languages. Besides, many Bangaloreans do not have address proof at all," Shamaiah said.
GET VOTER ID IN COLLEGE
To ensure that every citizen is armed with EPIC, Form 6 applications will be made available in all Bangalore colleges. "We are in talks with college principals to enrol their students,'' he said.

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