Chandigarh, March 12- Election Commission of India has directed all electors in all constituencies who have been issued EPIC have to produce the Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) for their identification at the polling station before casting their votes.
Haryana Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Dr. Inder Jeet said that those electors who are not able to produce the EPIC shall produce alternative photo identity documents for establishing their identity which includes Passport, Driving License, Service Identity Cards with photograph issued to employees by Central, State Govt, PSUs or Public Limited Companies, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank or Post Office, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, MNREGA Job Card, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, Pension document with photograph, Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs and Aadhaar Card.
He said that in the case of EPIC, minor discrepancies in the entries therein should be ignored, provided that the identity of the elector can be established by the EPIC. If an elector produces an EPIC which has been issued by the Electoral Registration Officer of another Assembly Constituency such card would also be accepted for identification provided the name of that elector finds place in the electoral roll pertaining to the polling station where the elector has turned up for voting. He said that if it is not possible to establish the identity of the elector on account of mismatch of photograph, the elector would have to produce one of the alternative photo documents.
He said that on earlier occasions, the Commission had allowed Photo Voter Slip as a document for identification. He said that as per available information, at present, more than 99 per cent electors possess EPIC, and more than 99 per cent adults have been issued Aadhar Cards. Taking all these facts in view, Commission has now decided that Photo Voter Slip shall henceforth not be accepted as a stand-alone identification document for voting. However, Photo Voter Slip would continue to be prepared. In order to make it clear to the electors that Photo Voter Slips should not be accepted as a stand-alone identification document for voting, the words THIS SLIP WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR THE PURPOSE OF IDENTIFICATION IN POLLING STATION. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO CARRY EPIC OR ONE OF THE 11 ALTERNATIVE DOCUMENTS SPECIFIED BY THE COMMISSION FOR VOTING" shall be printed on the Photo Voter Slip in bold letters.
Chandigarh, March 12- According to the directions of the Election Commission of India, all wall writing, posters, banners, hoardings showing government achievements in any government office or campus should be removed within in 24 hours, from the announcement of Lok Sabha General Elections 2019.
While giving information on this today, Joint Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, Dr. Inder Jeet said that the Commission has issued necessary directions to candidates or political parties for time to time campaigning and not to violate the Model Code of Conduct. He said that it is important to remove all kinds of unauthorized political advertisements in the form of wall writing, posters, banners and hoardings at public property or public space such as bus stands, airports, railway stations, Railway Bridges, government buses, electric or telephone poles, within 48 hours. Apart from this, unauthorized political advertisements displayed at private property should be removed within 72 hours.
He said that according to the directions of the commission, all references of ministers, politicians or political parties available on Central or State Governments official website should be removed with immediate effect. The ministers cannot combine their official visit with electioneering work and cannot also make use of official machinery during electioneering work. He said that public places like maidansfor holding election meetings and use of helipads in connection with election should not be monopolized by the party in power. Other candidates or political parties should be allowed to these places or facilities. He said that in view of security, if political functionaries staying at rest houses or other government accommodations, then they cannot make use of those government places for any election related work.
He said that from the time, elections are announced, no advertisement highlighting the government achievements can be issued in print or electronic media. No minister or any authority can announce financial grants, lay foundation stones and make any ad-hoc appointments in government, which may influence the voters.