NEW DELHI: On Monday, National Voters’ Day, the Electoral Commission will launch the ‘e-EPIC’, a secure and non-editable PDF version of the identity card with electoral photograph (EPIC) that can be downloaded to your mobile phone or in a self-printing form on your computer.
The e-EPIC service – to be launched by the Minister of Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad, ‘guest of honor’ at EC’s 2021 National Voter Day event on Monday, by distributing e-EPICs and EPIC cards to five new voters, it will eliminate the wait for delivery of the physical EPIC card after approval. Now, immediately after approval, EPIC can be downloaded. Voters can print the card, self-laminate it or store it digitally, at their convenience. The e-EPIC will be in addition to the plastic EPIC voter card that will be issued upon re-registration. The voter can upload the e-EPIC to the digilocker and store it safely with other documents.
All new voters registered during the 2021 special summary review, those who applied during November-December 2020, and whose mobile phone number provided during the application is unique, will receive an SMS and will be able to download e-EPIC between the 25th and the January 31, 2021. Thereafter, all other general electors will be able to download their e-EPIC wef on February 1, 2021, if they have a unique mobile number in the e-Roll. Alternatively, they will need to undergo the (KYC) process before downloading the e-EPIC. The e-EPIC will eliminate the need for a voter to obtain a new card each time there is an address change due to migration. A single e-EPIC card would be enough, just by changing the address in the QR code, which can be downloaded again.
This would allow the principle of “One nation, one voting card”. Voters who have lost or damaged their EPIC card will be able to download duplicate cards for free. Currently, this facility involves a payment of 25 rupees. National Voter Day has been celebrated on January 25 of every year since 2011 to mark the founding day ECI. President Ram Nath Kovind will be the main guest this year and will launch EC’s web radio ‘Hello Voters’.
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