When my wife and I saw the notice issued by the Chief Election Officer
(Commissioner, Mysore City Corporation) that voters need to verify that
their names are included in the voters' list before 31-12-12, we went to
the Election Office at MCC in November but found that our names could
not be located on any of the printed voters' lists. Hence we asked that
our names may be searched using the our voter's ID card numbers. My
number showed a female named Shivamma aged 40, and my wife's card
produced no name at all. The official at the MCC Election Office advised
us to file Form-6, which we did. We were assured that our names would
be restored on the voters' list within a month.
When we checked the website of the Karnataka Election Commission after a month, we still did not
find our names in the voters' list and our voter's ID nos. produced the
same results as above. We then sent an e-mail to the Election Commission
explaining the problem, but the problem remains. Now the District
Election Officer has told us that new voters ID cards will be issued and
their numbers entered into the voters list.
This episode indicates that the procedure followed by the
Election Commission in issuing voter's ID cards has fundamental flaws.
This is shocking since the ID Card is so important, being, along with
the Aadhaar card, the main proof that the holder is a citizen of India.
There should be no way that two people are issued the same ID
number. Again, there should be no way that a number which has been
issued is not traceable by the authorities. In addition, there are
innumerable complaints that much of the data on the cards is wrong and
if correction applications are given, the item in question may get
corrected, but a new error appears in some other item.
So it is imperative that the Election Commission should
immediately streamline the procedure of issuing ID cards to make it
error-free. It should also redesign the card and make it look more like a
national card. Now, the card looks quite amateurish with the format
changing from card to card. The quality of printing and the photo are
are not upto the mark. The assembly constituency should have been
omitted, since any change in the address would necessitate the issuing
of a new card. There must also be a provision to change the photo after,
say 20 years as is the practice in many countries which issue national
ID cards.
Maj.Gen.(Rtd.) S.G. Vombatkere, Mysore Grahakara Parishat