EVEN AS Jammu and Kashmir readies for elections this year, lakhs of election photo identity cards (EPIC) have gone missing. The official estimate is that 18 lakh cards are missing, but sources said the number is 25 lakhs.
While deputy election commissioners cite various reasons for this, sources said the cards were never made and that there has been embezzlement of funds.
It started ahead of the 2002 Assembly elections, when the Election Commission of India asked the state government to issue cards on the lines of those in other states. The election office got special paper issued from Nasik, which was to be given to officials to issue the photo-identity cards to voters. Only 11 lakh cards could be issued before the polls, so the remaining voters were allowed to use other identity proofs such as driver's licenses, PAN cards and ration cards.
Over 31 lakh cards were subsequently issued until November 2005. It was while making new electoral rolls in 2006, that the election office discovered that only 17 lakh voters had the cards. When the deputy commissioners were asked to explain this discrepancy, they cited various reasons - the October 2005 quake, grenade attacks and presiding officers not returning the office copies, etc.
But sources said there has either been collusion between the officials and non-voters, or the cards were not issued and the officials have made money out of them. This runs into embezzlement of several crores.
Chief Electoral Officer B.R. Sharma told Hindustan Times, "Yes, 18 lakh cards are missing due to various reasons. We are preparing fresh photo electoral rolls and 10 lakh of them have been linked through the earlier cards". Sharma added that others will be able to vote with other photo IDs.
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