It is indeed wonderful that the Election Commission of India has completed the herculean task of bringing into force the EPI card for the coming Lok Sabha polls 2014. While appreciating the effort to implement its use in the largest Democracy in the world, it must be pointed out that there are errors which need to be rectified with certain urgency.
As it is with all Government Departments, It is literally extremely difficult to approach them to get a wrong corrected. Moreover, the enormity of the task compels one as a responsible citizen to bring to the notice of the concerned authority with the help of the print media for early rectification. There are cases galore with faculty entries in the EPIC which nullifies the very purpose for which they are being issued.
As an instance, I would present my own case where my name in the EPIC is not mine but the photograph is. However, in the case of my wife, it is more unique as the name is hers, but the photograph is that of a male and on the back side the gender is mentioned as female. It is most unlikely that she will be allowed to exercise her right to adult franchise and moreover it is not expected that a dignified lady will make a mockery of herself by producing a card which displays a male photograph. The idea here is not to gain cheap publicity by going to the press but it is felt that there may be many cases which needs to be addressed immediately as the fault doesn’t lie with the unsuspecting public who had to queue up for days together to get themselves enrolled.
There is every possibility that illiteracy of the people may be used as an alibi while making entries for the epic by those who were involved. So I would like to cite my own case as I am a doctor by profession and my wife is also a doctorate and teaches in a college but our cards are faulty.
Lastly, I would like to appeal to all concerned department to help all those case where errors have been found.
Dr. A. B. Choudhury
President,
Indian Medical Association
Nagaland Chapter
