Karnataka - Hassan   

When Chidananda became ‘China’ in the voter ID card

Joy shortlived: People being photographed at a Government High School for issuing of voter identity cards in Hassan on Sunday.

HASSAN: People queued up before Government Primary School in Hassan to get their voter identity cards on Sunday. The administration had arranged for distributing ID cards on the spot. When the saw their cards, all their happiness of getting it was drained as they were full of mistakes.

Manjula was happy when the officials handed over the ID card within 15 minutes. When she saw the ID card, she was shocked as her husband’s name was mentioned as “China” instead of Chidananda.

Lakshmamma (59), a resident of Hassan, was shocked to see a boy’s photo is printed on the ID instead of hers.

Shama Sunder, a resident of Ravindra Nagar, found to his surprise that his father’s name was printed as Venkatannabhavan instead of Venkanna Bhat. In some cards, Sunder name was printed as Sund.

When the ID cards contain the photo of the opposite sex, the polling officers would not allow them to vote.

The Election Commission had stated that the card could be used as identity card for other purposes also. The missing of names from voters list is common.

People with disabilities and visually impaired persons had to stand in the same queue with other persons. As about 1,000 cards were to be issued a day from each terminal, there were many mistakes. The details that had been already fed into the computers were final.

There was little scope to make any changes at the ID card issuing centre. The staff had to take the photo of the voter and paste it on the details that have been already fed into the computer. The agency has to complete issuing photo ID cards within three days.

When contacted, Tahsildar T.N. Krishna Murthy said the authorities had displayed the draft voters’ list at taluk office for public view.

Corrections were carried out for those names for which applications were received before April 14.

The authorities could not do anything at this stage, he said. He said the errors may have been committed while feeding the data into computers.

He said after the elections, people can submit applications for correction.

When new photo IDs are issued, they would be issued with necessary correction.

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