TS Chief Electoral Officer directs all districts to celebrate National Voters Day on 25 Jan

Hyderabad: Telangana Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vikas Raj on Friday directed all district election officers (DEOs) in the state to celebrate National Voters Day (NVD) on 25 January as directed by the Election Commission of India (ECI).

He further asked them to administer the NVD pledge to everyone and play the “Main Bharath Hoon” song at the NVD function in the districts and at every booth in their respective districts. Further, he said awards will be given to officials who have done good work on various election-related aspects.

14 lakh new voter cards dispatched

Mr. Vikas Raj said the ECI has issued directions for the delivery of new color PVC EPIC cards to the doorsteps of all newly-enrolled electors through speed post. About 14 lakh EPIC cards out of 15.6 lakh have been printed and dispatched through speed post to all electors who were not given EPIC cards from December 2019 to September 2022. Systems have been put in place to deliver the EPIC cards for those who have applied after the publication of draft rolls, the CEO said and added they will be delivered shortly. He also requested the DEOs to complete the linking of Aadhar with EPIC cards in the next few days.

Disposal of photo similar entries

The CEO further asked the DEOs to concentrate on field verification and disposal of the second phase of photo similar entries (PSE) over the next 2-3 weeks. There are a total of about 12.55 lakh photo similar entries—entries of electors with similar photographs—that were identified by the ECI recently. The BLOs will verify each of these entries and submit their field verification reports along with the checklist based on which ERO will take further necessary action.