In an administrative move ahead of the upcoming electoral cycle, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of West Bengal will now directly oversee the distribution of photo identity cards to voters. The new system, officials say, is designed to expedite the delivery process and ensure better accountability in reaching voters across the state.
A senior official in the CEO’s office confirmed that over 1.5 lakh voter cards will be delivered directly to voters' homes via the postal department, with full-scale operations expected to begin in September. This marks a departure from the earlier process, where District Election Officers (DEOs) handled the distribution of EPICs (Electors Photo Identity Cards).
“Until now, the voter ID distribution system was lengthy and multi-tiered,” an official explained, adding, “Cards moved from Booth Level Officers (BLOs) to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), then to the DEO, before being printed and routed back through the same chain for postal delivery. Under the new protocol, the printed cards will go straight from Saraswati Press to the General Post Office (GPO), which will then ensure door-to-door delivery.”
To speed up the transition, the CEO’s office has already instructed all DEOs to deliver the existing voter cards in their possession within 15 days. If any EPICs remain undelivered by August 20, they must be returned to the CEO’s office, which will then take over distribution responsibilities. While streamlining operations, the CEO's office has also revealed a concerning trend: numerous voters cannot be traced during the EPIC distribution process. In Rajarhat-Gopalpur alone, over 300 cards remain undelivered because voters could not be found at the given addresses.
This has sparked concerns about the accuracy of electoral roll and the verification processes. "If voters are untraceable, it raises questions about the integrity of the electoral database and the process of voter registration," said a senior election official.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has suspended four officials and ordered criminal proceedings in connection with large-scale tampering of the state’s voter list. Two Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and two Assistant EROs from Baruipur East in South 24 Parganas and Moyna on East Midnapore constituencies have been suspended, while a criminal case is being registered against a data entry operator.
The Commission also summoned EROs from Nandakumar in East Midnapore and Rajarhat-Gopalpur in North 24 Parganas, following the discovery fake voter entries in the two constituencies. This decision of directly engaging the CEO’s office for delivering EPICs comes shortly after the Election Commission of India wrote to the state on July 22, urging it to declare the CEO’s office an ‘independent office’—a step seen as crucial for ensuring administrative neutrality and efficiency in electoral operations.
Under the new card distribution system, the CEO’s office is confident that voters will receive their EPICs much faster and with greater reliability. The move is also expected to reduce bottlenecks and avoid political interference at the district level.
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