(a) whether any progress has been made by the Election Commission in issuing of Voter Identity Cards;
(b) the percentage of voters to whom Identity Cards have been issued by the Election Commission, State-wise and region wise;
(c) the total cost thereof;
(d) the time by which such Identity Cards are likely to be issued to all the voters; and
(e) the steps taken to remove the anomalies found in preparation of such cards and to display them in electoral list?
MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE (SHRI H.R. BHARDWAJ)
(a) & (b): Yes, Sir. There has been considerable progress in issuing of Electors Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) to eligible electors enrolled in the existing electoral roll. At present nearly 69.50% of electors have been provided Electors Photo Identity Cards. A Statement showing State/Union Territory-wise percentage of electorate in the 2004/2005 roll provided with Electors Photo Identity Cards is laid on the Table of the House.
(c): The expenditure on preparation of Electors Photo Identity Cards is shared between the Central and the State Governments on 50:50 basis. A sum of Rs. 542,80,74,000/- 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 under 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. In the second phase, those States/UTs, where threshold target of 85% has been achieved, go in to the Maintenance Mode for issuing EPICs to residual electors. In this mode permanent Designated Photography Location (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 Designated Photography Locations to get their cards prepared. It is the endeavour of the Commission to issue EPICs to all the electors enrolled in the electoral rolls at the earliest possible.
(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. 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 numbers 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 six North Eastern States of Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura and Jammu & Kashmir. In Arunachal Pradesh the above mentioned strategy would be followed during the next intensive revision to be undertaken w.r.t. 01.01.2006 as the qualifying date.
STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) AND (b) of the LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.1951 FOR ANSWER ON 5.8.2005.
ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA
STATUS FOR THE PROGRESS OF ELECTOR’S PHOTO IDENTITY CARD
Sl.No. State/Union Territory Total electors Electors issued % of EPIC issued w.r.t. 1.1.2004 with defect-free electoral roll Identity Cards
Total electors w.r.t. 1.1.2005 electoral roll#
1. Andhra Pradesh 52,215,678# 39,395,792 75.45
2. Arunachal Pradesh 624,086 304,822 48.84 3 Assam 14,995,084 67,479 0.45 4 Bihar #52,651,751 29,964,656 56.91 5 Chattisgarh 13,691,885 9,620,499 70.26 6 Goa #952,723 773,942 81.23 7 Gujarat #33, 847,275 24,807,957 73.29 8 Haryana #12,642,552 11,187,854 88.49 9 Himachal Pradesh #4,159,962 3,053,116 73.39 10 Jammu and Kashmir 6,345,696 3,198,936 50.41 11 Jharkhand #17,736,462 10,690,664 60.28 12. Karnataka #39,947,927 30,766,798 77.02 13 Kerala #20,824,302 20,817,124 99.97 14 Madhya Pradesh 38,386,651 27,254,099 71.00 15. Maharashtra 62,667,450 44,455,999 70.94 16. Manipur #1,667,729 786,907 47.18 17. Meghalaya #1,335,812 1,033,575 77.37 18. Mizoram #559,132 405,785 72.57 19. Nagaland 1,040,347 723,749 69.57 20 Orissa #26,231,561 20,701,672 78.92 21 Punjab #16,659,243 12,025,689 72.19 22 Rajasthan #34,751,347 26,900,347 77.41 23. Sikkim #288,674 220,297 76.31 24. Tamil Nadu 47,204,675 34,474,455 73.03 25. Tripura #2,130,299 1,610,496 75.60 26. Uttar Pradesh 110,284,179 63,895,986 57.94 27. Uttaranchal #5,640,034 3,938,864 69.84 28. West Bengal #48,085,522 40,862,587 84.98 29. A and N Island #250,191 210,714 84.22 30. Chandigarh #563,610 288,389 51.17 31. Dadar & Nagar Haveli #126,256 83,615 66.23 32. Daman & Diu #80,961 59,847 73.92 33. Lakshadweep #39,892 35, 564 89.15 34. NCT of Delhi 8, 748,816 5,699,482 65.15 35. Pondicherry 636,022 636,022 100.00
Total 678,013,786 470,953,779 69.46
Note: The electoral roll for the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Andaman and Nicobar Isalands and NCT of Delhi w.r.t. 1.1.2005 as the qualifying date are yet to be finally published. In respect of Arunchal Pradesh, no revision w.r.t. 1.1.2005 is being undertaken In view of the above, the column 2 of the above Table contains the figures of electors in relation to abovesaid States/UTs w.r.t. 1.1.2004 as qualifying date.