The state branch of the Election Commission of India will be lodging an FIR against the now untraceable people guilty of issuing a bogus voter ID card.
But chief electoral officer regards incident as ‘one-off’
MUMBAI: The state branch of the Election Commission of India will be lodging an FIR against the now untraceable people guilty of issuing a bogus voter ID card to a DNA correspondent on December 5. This was disclosed to DNA on Saturday by the EC’s state joint chief electoral officer, Shekhar Channe. He termed the incident as a one-off arguing that the system developed by the EC cannot generate such bogus voter ID cards.
For the last three days, EC officials have been furiously trying to trace the people who were guilty of misusing the system to generate bogus voter ID cards. On Saturday, the officials did try to identify the people responsible, but the effort was in vain. “We shall be formally lodging an FIR in the case in a day or two,” disclosed Channe.
He added, “Until now, we have taken photographs of over 1.5 crore eligible voters all across the state during this programme. Such a thing has never happened. However, one cannot guarantee safety.”
More drama followed on Saturday at the identification parade with one of the staffers from the Vakrangi software company, which has been awarded the contract to make voter ID cards. The staffer admitted to have made a bogus ID card with the help of a webcam. He also said that he had been paid to do so. Speaking to DNA, Vakrangi software company’s personnel manager Niraj Tandon clarified, “Our staffer was not involved. We, too, are trying to trace this person.”
Channe, on the other hand, pointed out that initially, while awarding the contract to Vakrangi after following the due tender process, the company was entrusted the task of preparing voter ID cards in three divisions of Konkan, Aurangabad and Nashik.
“Since the company failed in the task assigned to it, the work assigned to it in Aurangabad and Nashik was withdrawn. After this, the company has been assigned the task of preparing voter ID cards only in the two districts.”
He further added that the EC has imposed penalties on the company and its bills are not being cleared till the penalty is recovered. EC sources also disclosed that as per the system, the contractor should have hired adequate staff which is supposed to, among other things, verify the name, age, photograph, signature and other details of the person coming forward to obtain a voter ID card.
t_kiran@dnaindia.net
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