APART FROM VOTER ID CARD 12 ALTERNATIVE DOCUMENTS COULD BE USED ON THE ELECTION DAY FOR CASTING VOTE: DEPUTY COMMISSIONER

ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA APPROVES USE OF OTHER DOCUMENTS IF EPIC CUM VOTER CARD IS NOT AVAILABLE Ferozepur, May 16, 2019: In order to facilitate voters to exercise their franchise freely, the election commission of India has approved use of 12 alternative documents to cast their votes, said deputy commissioner cum district election officer Mr.Chander Gaind. Reviewing the arrangements for poll day, the deputy commissioner said that polling staff across the all 869 booths has already been aware of these 12 alternative documents so that no voters could face any problem on May, 19. He said that apart from elector’s photo identity card (EPIC, also called voter ID card), the voters could exercise their franchise using alternative documents including Aadhaar card, passport, driving license, service ID cards (with photograph) issued by central or state governments or public sector undertakings. Mr. Gaind said that the election commission has also allowed bank or post office passbooks with photographs, PAN card, MGNREGA job card, Health Insurance smart card, pension documents, official identity card issued to MP, MLAs and MLCs besides the Smart Card Issued to beneficiaries under the scheme of Ministry of Labour. The Deputy Commissioner said that the voters must bring their authenticated voter slip along with any of these Identity cards to exercise their franchise. He said that in order to ensure that polling staff ensures that people with these cards could exercise the vote these posters in English, Punjabi and Hindi language would be distributed to the poll staff to paste them at the booths. The deputy commissioner said that it would also be ensured that the voters do not face any sort of problem in exercising their franchise freely. He also asked the voters to cast their vote enthusiastically without any sort of fear.