Chennai: The Chennai Corporation will set up link centres, scheduled to begin functioning on April 22, to enable corrections in Elector's Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) and issue duplicate cards to those who have lost them.

These centres would also issue EPIC to voters whose names were included in the electoral rolls only in the final revision that ended on February 12, 2006. These voters had not been photographed till now as their names did not feature in the general electoral rolls.

A detailed schedule on the functioning of link centres in each of the 14 constituencies in the city would soon be made available to the public, a Corporation official said. He said that the names of voters in the final supplement of the electoral rolls were available only after the preparation of the first electoral rolls and, hence, their EPIC were not issued in the first or second round. For voters whose cards are lost or badly damaged, a duplicate EPIC will be issued at a cost of Rs. 15. Form 002 has to be filled at the link centre to avail this facility. In case the elector has lost cards in natural calamities such as fire, floods or tsunami, a duplicate would be issued free of cost after the claim is verified. Voters with EPIC cards that contain errors such as wrong photograph, incorrect name, incorrect relative's name, incorrect age and incorrect address (NOT change of address) will also be attended to free of cost at the link centres. The voter to get the corrections done must submit form 004. Voters whose names were included in the final supplement can now check their names online through the search facility available at www.tn.gov.in/elections/home.asp. Clarifications on the EPIC process are also available here.

Observers for Chennai

Chennai's district election officer on Wednesday released the list of Election Commission appointed observers for the Assembly elections. Residents can complain about violations of the model code of conduct and other election related issues to the observers.

All the observers have been accommodated in State Government Guest House in Chepauk and Anna Institute of Management on Greenways Road. Most of them arrived in the city on Wednesday and the remaining are expected on Thursday.

The place of stay and contact phone numbers of the observers are as follows: Royapuram constituency: Satyyajeet Rajan, G-9 suite, Anna Institute of Management, Greenways Road, Phone: 98402 37536; Harbour constituency: Anoop Kumar, SGH-6, State Guest House, Chepauk, Phone: 98402 20325; Dr.Radhakrishnan Nagar: Pidiru Raghavendra Rao, Suite G-10, Anna Institute of Management, Phone: 99404 58857; Park Town: D. Satyamurthy, SGH-101, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 37293; Perambur: S.R. Pandore, SGH-206, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 37502;

Purasawalkam: Shyam Sundar Prasad, SGH-4, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 32790; Egmore: S. Kishore, suite no.11, Anna Institute of Management, Phone: 98402 32763; Anna Nagar: Amita Paul, SGH-1, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 32714; T.Nagar:

Vijay Bhushan Pathak, SGH-5, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 18791; Thousand Lights: P.B. Kaibhor, SGH-15, State Guest House, Phone: 98408 67043; Chepauk: Anand Kumar, SGH-2, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 37268; Triplicane: H.K. Jawale, SGH-12, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 32682; Mylapore: Suresh Chandra Panda, SGH-103, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 17952; Saidapet: Rajagopala Devara, SGH-3, State Guest House, Phone: 98402 21960.

Expenditure observers

Apart from observers for the specific city constituencies, some officials have also been appointed as expenditure observers.

They are: Venkat Reddy, M-3, Anna Institute of Management, Phone: 98402 17956; Elsi Thomas, M-5, Anna Institute of Management, Phone: 98402 19432; and M. Anil Kumar, M-4, Anna Institute of Management, Phone: 99403 82460.

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