Punjab Newsline, Chandigarh, March 8 –
ECI has announced a major initiative to resolve the long-standing issue of duplicate EPIC numbers within the next three months.
A spokesperson of the commission said this decision follows extensive discussions within the Commission’s technical teams and consultations with Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) across States and Union Territories.
He said with over 99 crore registered electors, India's electoral roll is the largest database of electors globally. As regards the issue of duplicate EPIC numbers, the Commission has already taken cognizance of the matter. Irrespective of an EPIC number, an elector who is linked to the electoral roll of a particular polling station can cast his vote at that polling station only and nowhere else.
Sample enquiry of over 100 electors revealed that electors with duplicate EPIC numbers are genuine electors. Since the allotment of EPIC series in the year 2000 to the States/UTs, some EROs did not use the correct series.
Previously, as each State/UT managed its electoral roll database independently, cross-state duplicate detection was not feasible.