Electoral rolls verification from Aug 16 to Sept 30: CEO Satyabrata Sahoo

CHENNAI: As part of a country-wide exercise, verification of electoral rolls will be taken up in Tamil Nadu from August 16 to September 30 to help make changes/corrections if needed in the Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC), the State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Satyabrata Sahoo said here on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Sahoo said this exercise was to help voters to replace smudged photos if needed, correct typos and make changes to the residential address on voter ID cards and any other modification that may be needed.

Urging the voters to make use of this verification window, Mr. Sahoo said people could make the needed changes through a voter helpline being installed for the purpose, besides through 'NVSP service portal' and E-service centres. The EC will soon release an exclusive app for the benefit of the electorate, he said.

Voters will have to each pay Rs.25 for changes/modification to the EPIC cards, he said. For new voters, the EPIC cards will be issued free of cost, Mr. Sahoo assured. The EC will coordinate with all the recognised political parties at the district level in this exercise, he said.

Referring to the new draft roll, he said this year it will be released on October 15. In November, special camps for enrolling new voters will be held and the final electoral rolls will be released by January 20, 2020, Mr. Sahoo said, adding, in this revision, voters mobile phone numbers and email ids will be sought to enable messages to be sent to the individual voters in the event of their name being deleted.

Asked about charges of cash disbursal during the Vellore LS election on Monday, Mr Sahoo said no complaint has been received so far from any political party. He also released the final voting percentage for Vellore LS constituency which came to 71.51 per cent polling.

Following are the Assembly-wise polling percentage recorded in the August 5 election to Lok Sabha from Vellore constituency: Vellore Assembly -66.75 per cent, Anicut- 74.77 per cent, K.V.Kuppam- 75.60 per cent, Gudiyatham- 69.06 per cent, Vaniyambadi - 73.25 per cent and Ambur 70.53 per cent.