Manufacture and preparation to new Voter Identity cards to commence in July
Posted on: 13/Jun/2014 2:58:06 PM
The state government has selected the list of companies who print the plastic voters’ identity cards. This card will be like the PAN card (Permanent Account Number for Income Tax Records) with security features and would not be possible to make duplicates. The manufacture will start in July.
The ID card would be thin plastic sheet and will be laminated. Meanwhile, the Election Commission received information that bogus Voter ID cards are being printed. Another complaint was that the cards did not look elegant.
The Election Commission decided to make a card using advanced printing technology. The size will be identical to the PAN card. It cannot be easily broken nor would not lose prints if exposed in water. It would contain a colour photograph of the voter. The dimensions will be 8.5 cm (length) and 5.4 cm (breadth).
Tender floated by ELCOT
ELCOT invited tenders for printing the new voter ID cards. Though it was planned to commence the manufacturing work on the voter ID cards in January, delays in tendering process and the recent parliamentary elections this work was temporarily stopped. With the completion of election, the activities have started again and the tender for priting the voter ID cards has been finalised by ELCOT.
Division into 5 zones
Slightly longer than the PAN card, the new voter ID cards will have details printed both in English & Tamil on either side. Manufacture will be based on ‘Guilloche’ technology with digital features which will not permit production of any duplicates.
The state has been divided into 5 zones – Chennai, Coimbatore, Trichy, Madurai, and Salem for manufacture of voter ID cards. ELCOT has decided on 2 companies based on the tender. This has been sent to the Finance Department for approval.
On receipt of approval, the [printing of new voter ID cards will commence in the 5 regions mentioned above. In the first stage, the contractor will set up his office inthe regions. Samples of Voter ID cards will be shown for approval and the manufacture will start based only on approval.
What about the old voter ID card holders?
In the first stage, the printing of voter ID cards will be only for the new applicants. When relisting of voters list is being taken up in October, new coloued photograh cards will be given for those who applied fresh. However, no decision has been taken on new cards for the old voter (‘black & white’) photograph card holders.
A point to be noted is that the coloured photograph of the old ID cards is alredy available witith the office. Hence, if a decision is taken to issue a fresh coloured voter ID card, it can be done quickly.
