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Identity card will be made compulsory
for Bengal polls: EC

Election Commissioner T S Krishna Murthy on Saturday said identity card would be made compulsory for voters of West Bengal in the coming assembly elections in May.

He told this to reporters soon after he met Governor Viren Shah on Saturday afternoon.

Krishna Murthy was accompanied by West Bengal Chief Electoral officer Sabyasachi Sen.

When asked about flood victims who had been rendered homeless, he said, "We will make alternative arrangements for them."

He informed that 82 per cent of voters in West Bengal had got their identity cards and was hopeful that everybody would get a voter's identity card before the elections.

Opposition parties in the state had demanded on Friday that elections not be held unless voter's identity cards were issued to everyone.

Krishna Murthy also stated that the final dates for the assembly election in West Bengal, along with three other states, would be announced in March or April.

On the security aspect during the polls, he said, "It is too premature to comment on whether the EC will recommend deployment of paramilitary forces during the elections." That is what opposition parties had demanded.

The Election Commission plans to use Electronic Voting Machines in the elections despite the Communist Party of India-Marxist's opposition for not being fool proof.

The EC said, "We have tested EVMs and so far we have got 0.2 per cent complaints. We are rectifying those complaints."

Sibyachi Sen informed that 72,000 EVMs were needed for West Bengal but so far the state had only 12,000.

"While 5,000 EVMs will arrive from Orissa, an order for 56,000 EVMs has been placed at ECIL, Hyderabad," Sen added.

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