New Delhi, Sept 04: With assembly elections in Delhi nearing, poll authorities have launched a massive exercise to take the total coverage of the photo identity cards scheme to about 75 per cent of the Capital's voters and to update the electoral rolls. Out of the 82.5 lakh electorate in the national capital, at least 75 per cent of the eligible voters were likely to be covered by the electors' photo identity cards (EPIC) programme, Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Arun Goyal told a news agency. Though 70 per cent of voters has already been provided with identity cards, under the special epic programme which would continue till September 09 another four to five per cent of voters were likely to be issued such cards, he said adding that the programme was being carried out in 19 centres across the city.

Keeping with the directives of the Election Commission on the cleaning of electoral rolls, works such as addition, deletion and modification of rolls were going in full swing, he said. Stating that the authorities had already removed more than 10,000 duplicate voters from the voters list after a thorough scrutiny, Goyal added that the authorities had also generated a special software to detect duplicate voters, those shifted their residence or dead voters.

Bureau Report