Date:30/04/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/04/30/stories/2008043058710300.htm

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

EPIC centres to be a permanent measure

Staff Reporter

Will start functioning from mid-May: Chief Electoral Officer

— Photo: M. Moorthy

Getting ready: Chief Electoral Officer, Naresh Gupta, reviewing photo electoral rolls with officials of eight districts in Tiruchi on Tuesday.

TIRUCHI: The Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) centres to be established in all the Assembly constituencies in the State would start functioning from the middle of May, the Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said on Tuesday.

EPIC centres in rural areas would be set up in the taluk offices while in urban areas it would function from the Corporation offices, he told the media here. The Chief Electoral Officer was in the city to preside over the training programme for the master trainers of eight districts in the Central Region on the functions and modalities of the EPIC centres.

The centres would be equipped with computers, printers, scanners and digital camera for capturing images and printing of EPI Cards to provide for new cases and residual electors besides issue of replacement/duplicate EPIC in case of defects such as errors in name, age, sex, loss of card and change of address.

The EPIC centres would be connected through the State-Wide Area Network for which the State Election Department had applied to the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu Limited. Training of the master trainers was already over at Chennai. It would be conducted at Madurai on Wednesday (April 30) and at Coimbatore on May 6.

Pre-recorded compact discs had been supplied to utilise them while imparting training to the master trainers. These trainers would in turn train other categories of staff, Mr. Gupta said.

Once the training sessions were over and connectivity was provided the EPIC centres would start functioning from the middle of May, he said.

To a query, he said that the EPIC centres would be a permanent measure.

Officer on Special Duty S. Bragadha, Joint Chief Electoral Officer (Computerisation) Jayashree Muralidharan, Collector T. Soundiah and Corporation Commissioner T.T. Balsamy were present.