By IANS,
Panaji : Finger printing and spot photographs of all voters across India might soon be made mandatory if a pilot project commissioned by the Election Commission of India (ECI) in Goa is successful, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi said Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters here, the CEC said the exercise of photographing and finger-printing of voters, which has been going on in Goa over the last two polls — for the Lok Sabha and the Zilla Panchayat, was in its final stages of fine tuning.
“If it works well in the (2014) general elections too, then we will have it in all other states,” Quraishi said.
The exercise of photographing and finger-printing of voters will also figure during the upcoming assembly polls in the state March 3.
The CEC, who was in Goa to take stock of the poll preparations ahead of the March 3 assembly polls, also said that the state, which has nearly 11 lakh registered voters was almost picture perfect, as far as electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) coverage and completion of voter rolls was concerned.
“Goa is nearly 100 percent covered as far as EPICs and photo electoral rolls are concerned. We are happy with the coverage, although very, very few people are not yet covered,” Quraishi said.