voter card

electoral roll

Block Level Officer

voter ID card

ID proof

.

BBMP

EPIC number

Faulty websites force Bengalureans to use offline method to get voter cardsSushesh S Mallya, a resident of Ramesh Nagar, has been following up on his mother’sfor close to a decade now. They have been living in the same house for 20 years and due to reasons unknown, his mother’s name was struck out from the“We applied twice on the offline mode. The corporator’s associate collected all the required documents and yet there is no update.“We applied online again and until March 2019, the update was ‘waiting for verification’ but there was no further development until December last year.I called the helpline and they suggested to meet the(BLO) and they told me that someone has been assigned to come and verify.When I checked earlier this year, her name was still not there on the voters list,” he said.Mallya added he is clueless about what to do next.He pointed out that though his name on hishas been misspelt, he has still been able to vote. “I go with my otherdocuments,” he said.Though applications and the process to issue the voter card have gone online, many residents across the city claim that they are unable to get their IDs.Many a times, the applications get rejected without proper reason and they are forced to go to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike () ward office and submit the details physically.In total, from March 1, 2019, to February 2019, 6,37,696 applications were submitted and digitised and 13,609 applications have been assigned for field verification.Mili Mishra, a team member of BBMP 2020, an initiative to help citizens with the issues relating to voter ID, said they get about five to six requests per week from across the city.She said, “Sometimes, offline application works faster than the online one. The links on the website do not work many a times.“There have been instances where thewas not generated when the person applied online and when he/she went to the ward office, it was generated on the spot.“The voter card should be issued within a month of the application but many a times, the process gets stuck and as many do not have time, they are unable to follow up on it offline.“When the applications get rejected, they do not provide any specific reason.”However, in some cases, the online process has been as fast as 10 days. Ranjith, a HR professional who lives in Anekal, said that he has been trying to transfer the voter card to his present constituency from the earlier one in Udupi and despite several attempts offline, there is no progress.He said, “The officials were saying that I should cancel and then apply for a new one here and that there are options to transfer it. My wife’s application was also getting rejected. I applied online by uploading the documents and my name appeared on voters list within 10 days. My wife however has got a new EPIC number while I got the old one only.”