Stung by public outcry over missing names, the chief electoral office is working on setting up a 24x7 help desk through Bangalore One centres. This will function through the year and not just before elections to tackle voter woes.

Chief Electoral Officer M N Vidyashankar told The Times of India on Friday that the initiative was aimed at putting an end to Bangalore’s perennial ‘epic’ problem missing names in electoral rolls.” This initiative will ensure that there’s one place where citizens can go and rectify all their voter ID-related issues,’’ he said. Admitting that the process of getting one’s name included in the voters’ list is cumbersome, he said: “It takes us minimum 10 days to get a name included, though spelling corrections are now made over the counters at the voter facilitation centres. The electoral procedures are followed as per the law. Any change will require an amendment to the law. We have placed our suggestions alongside CECs from other states to the Centre,’’ Vidyashankar said.

Stating that the voter ID card is indeed sacrosanct, he said since a majority of voters still don’t have the EPIC card, it has not been made mandatory. “For instance, on a list of 100 names, only 80 have their EPIC. And the system insists on inclusion on electoral roll to avoid discrepancy in voter details. This also ensures a regular update of voters. That is why we keep revising the rolls.’’

The CEC also blamed the public for not checking their names till the last moment. “Despite many of our initiatives concentrating on urban areas, not many people utilise it until a day or exactly a week or at times a month before the elections. Nothing can be changed as long as this attitude continues. The 24x7 helpline set up by us received 12,000 calls on Thursday itself.

Source: TNN