EPIC cards to be given away free of cost

Hyderabad: District Election Officer Dana Kishore has said that around 2.71 lakh Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) cards would be distributed at free of cost to the voters who have enrolled in the electoral rolls between Jan 1 and Nov 11. The DEO, along with city commissioner of police, ECI appointed general expenditure observers, nodal officers and all connected election officials, held a review meeting on Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and on the process of election activities like poll day and counting arrangements, on Wednesday at GHMC Head Office.

The DEO, while interacting with the officials, said that to enable 18,000 disabled persons to cast their vote on the poll day, 150 separate vehicles would be deployed. The officials will take care of them during transportation to the concerned polling stations, he said. For polling stations identified as critical, CCTV cameras were being provided within 100 meters for clear transparency, he added.  The DEO said that webcasting is being arranged on all the 3,873 polling stations and a separate control room was being arranged at GHMC Head Office, where the information from all the ROs would be known and immediate action would be taken from the control room itself.

With regard to pre-polling day, poll day and counting day, separate officers were being deployed for seeking information on priority, said the DEO. All precautionary measures were being taken to take the entire emergency situation, if any arises, on the poll day, he said, and added that pamphlets were being distributed on necessary information with regards to role of presiding officer and assistant presiding officer to perform their duties with clear vision. Dana Kishore further said that an SMS would be sent to all the property tax payers in the GHMC limits to cast their votes, and that awareness programs on importance of voting was also being done through hoardings, jingles in radio channels etc., for active participation of the voters on poll day which is on December 7.