TAMBARAM: Hundreds of residents of Srinivasa Nagar, Rajendra Prasad Road and nearby areas in Chromepet who came to a designated photo location (DPL) to have their voters identity card taken returned home disappointed after officials said pictures could not be taken on Friday due to staff shortage and some problems in equipment.

This is not the first time residents have been put to inconvenience under the ongoing Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) programme. Today's incident only reflected the state of preparedness of the government machinery to implement a vital scheme, said members of the federation of civic and welfare associations Residents of divisions Parts 194 to 196 were informed that the EPIC programme would be held for three days from Friday at a matriculation school on Rajendra Prasad Road from 10 a.m. onwards.

Officials absent

Though the residents started assembling more than a couple of hours ahead of the starting time, there was no indication that the programme would start. Around 10 a.m., as none of the government officials could be seen at the DPL, residents grew restless and the crowd spilled on the road. They waited for more than two hours for any sign of activity, only to be informed that the programme would commence only from Saturday.

V. Santhanam, Bharathiya Janata Party councillor of Pallavaram Municipality, said government agencies involved in the EPIC programme should take care to ensure that residents who come to the DPLs for having their pictures taken for the ID cards should not be put to hardship.

Stating that more than 2,000 people had to be photographed, he wondered whether one location for three days with just a single camera would be sufficient to cover such a large population of voters. Officials said the problem was solely due to shortage of staff and equipment.

Claiming that at present only about 20 cameras were at their disposal in Tambaram and Alandur constituencies for EPIC prgramme, sources said unless the government allocated more of them here, problems would continue. They said they had no option but to put off today's programme.

It would be better to make a full-fledged start, even if it meant a loss of one day than create problems for all with limited resources at their disposal. The sources said they were hopeful of receiving at least another six cameras.

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