MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE (SHRI K. VENKATAPATHY)
(a) Yes, Sir. The Election Commission has informed that there has been considerable progress in providing in Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) during the last three years. Approximately 7 crore electors have been provided EPIC during the last three years;
(b) A statement showing State/Union Territory-wise percentage of electorate in the 2004 roll provided with EPIC is laid on the Table of the House.
(c) The expenditure on preparation of EPIC is shared between the Central and the State Goverments on 50:50 basis. A sum of Rs.526,53,13,000/- has been released to the State Governments as the Government of India`s share of the expenditure on the issuance of electors photo identity cards.
(d) The Election Commission has stated that the registration of electors is a continuous process, excepting for a brief
period between the last date for filing nomination and completion of election process. Therefore, the scheme of issue of
EPIC to the registered electors is necessarily a continuous process as every new elector will also have to be covered by
the scheme. The Commission has outlined steps to complete issue of EPIC in two phases. It has fixed a threshold limit of
85% coverage in the first phase during which field campaigns for extensive coverage of electors included in the existing
roll are launched. The campaign is taken up using a targeted approach. Parts of electoral roll of a constituency
representing groups of small villages or parts representing the same village in case of large village or localities in
urban areas are clubbed together for the purpose of this analysis. Locations - called Designated Photography Locations
(DPL) - are identified where the residual electors can be photographed in such a manner that a team of persons is able
to cover them in a specified period of time. This campaign mode is continued till the threshold level of 85% of total
electors is achieved.
In the second phase, those of the States/Union territories, who attain the threshold target of 85% will go in to the Maintenance Mode to issue EPIC to residual electors. In this mode permanent DPL centers are provided at the district/sub-divisional headquarters. The electors who have either been left out for any reason or those electors who are added to the roll later on are required to go to these DPLs to get their cards prepared.
It is the endeavour of the Commission to achieve the target of issuing the EPICs to all the electors enrolled in the electoral roll being revised w.r.t. 01-01-2005 as the qualifying date by the end of year 2005.
The Commission is continuously emphasizing on use of EPIC in all elections. However, as the use of EPIC for the purpose of voting is still not a well-settled drill, the Commission, as a matter of abundant caution have been permitting the electors who could not get/preserve their EPICs for some reasons, to vote at elections provided their identity is otherwise established by production of one of the alternative documents prescribed by the Commission.
(e) The Election Commission has informed that the scheme of EPIC was introduced in 1993 independent of electoral rolls.
The EPIC details were not captured in the electoral roll. Some of the difficulties encountered were genuine as this was
a completely new scheme in the implementation of which a variety of technical issues had to be addressed.
The Computerisation of Electoral Rolls Programme in 1997 created the basic ground conditions through which integration
of EPIC with the electoral rolls became possible. Accordingly, the Commission issued revised guidelines in May 2000
for EPIC programme detailing technical specifications and implementation strategy that envisaged its full and complete
integration with the programme of Computerisation of electoral rolls. Thereafter, intensive revision of electoral rolls
has been undertaken in 2002 and 2003 in all States/Union territories, except Jammu & Kashmir and the North-Eastern States
of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura to update the rolls as well as to capture
the EPIC number in the electoral roll to synchronize the electoral database with that of EPIC. The Enumerators visited
every house and collected the names of all eligible persons and also the EPIC number of the persons already possessing
such cards. The same strategy is being followed during the current intensive revision of electoral rolls w.r.t. 01-01-2005
as the qualifying date in the North Eastern States and Jammu & Kashmir. Statement referred to in reply to part (b) of
the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1796 for 10.12.2004
Statement referred to part (b) of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 1796 for answer on 10.12.2004
Status for the progress of Elector`s Photo Identity Card
Sl.No. State/U.Ts Total Electors w.r.t. Grand Total Electors % of EPIC 01-01-2004 roll issued with issued Defect-free (Column 3 & 6) Identity Cards (General) (Service)#
1 Andhra Pradesh 51,001,479 28,554 51,030,033 39,395,792 77.24
2 Arunachal Pradesh 624,086 736 624,822 304,822 48.84
3 Assam 14,995,084 19,232 15,014,316 67,479 0.45
4 Bihar 50,532,795 32,277 50,565,072 26,057,808 51.57
5 Chhattisgarh 13,691,885 4,392 13,696,277 9,620,499 70.26
6 Goa 940,468 649 941,117 764,837 81.33
7 Gujarat 33,597,068 11,344 33,608,412 24,807,957 73.84
8 Haryana 12,257,580 62,991 12,320,571 11,187,854 91.27
9 Himachal Pradesh 4,127,440 45,609 4,173,049 3,053,116 73.97
10 Jammu & Kashmir 6,345,696 31,176 6,376,872 3,198,936 50.41
11 Jharkhand 16,799,443 4,995 16,804,438 8,380,610 49.89
12 Karnataka 38,432,800 27,095 38,459,895 30,766,798 80.05
13 Kerala 20,822,140 40,543 20,862,683 20,817,124 99.98
14 Madhya Pradesh 38,386,651 17,866 38,404,517 27,254,099 71.00
15 Maharashtra 62,667,450 75,597 62,743,047 44,455,999 70.94
16 Manipur 1,532,628 3,880 1,536,508 2,841 0.19
17 Meghalaya 1,299,419 1,170 1,300,589 1,033,575 79.54
18 Mizoram 548,544 1,401 549,945 405,785 73.97
19 Nagaland 1,040,347 1,398 1,041,745 723,749 69.57
20 Orissa 25,629,772 21,787 25,651,559 20,790,801 81.12
21 Punjab 16,568,709 43,635 16,612,344 11,661,495 70.38
22 Rajasthan 34,629,341 71,988 34,701,329 26,900,347 77.68
23 Sikkim 279,540 282 279,822 220,297 78.81
24 Tamil Nadu 47,064,103 43,075 47,107,178 35,026,156 74.42
25 Tripura 1,977,115 1,388 1,978,503 1,610,496 81.46
26 Uttar Pradesh 110,284,179 83,069 110,367,248 63,895,986 57.94
27 Uttaranchal 5,462,502 55,387 5,517,889 3,828,062 70.08
28 West Bengal 47,433,587 37,048 47,470,635 40,862,587 86.15
29 A & N Islands 241,159 292 241,451 210,714 87.38
30 Chandigarh 506,208 1,438 507,646 330,218 65.23
31 D & N Haveli 122,664 17 122,681 83,615 68.17
32 Daman & Diu 79,041 10 79,051 59,847 75.72
33 Lakshadweep 38,990 43 39,033 35,564 91.21
34 NCT of Delhi 8,748,816 4,840 8,753,656 5,699,482 65.15
35 Pondicherry 636,022 265 636,287 636,022 100.00
Total: 669,344,751 775,469 670,120,220 464,151,369 69.34
# Service electors means a member of the Armed Forces of the Union, a member of the Armed Police Force of a State, and serving outside that State or employed under the Govt. of India in a post outside India.
