Page 105 - Leap of Faith inside pages with cover (1)

ECI Asserts its Authority Chapter 4

My destiny in my hands
The na onwide programme for Electors Photo Iden ty
Cards (EPIC) was launched in 1994. This was followed by
an intensive revision of electoral rolls in 1995. The
challenge was to integrate the EPIC with electoral rolls. In
August, 1997 the work of computerising the electoral roll
was taken up. In addi on to this high volume data for 620
million or 62 cr plus electors, the Commission had to also
meet the challenge of handling mul ple Indian languages.
The electoral roll was now to be treated as a database
rather than a simple printed text as before. The format of
the electoral roll was thoroughly standardised. The
computerisa on made it possible to supply the electoral
roll to recognised na onal and state poli cal par es on
CD-ROM for free. The EPIC and the computerised electoral
roll were integrated. This made it possible for a voter to
migrate from one cons tuency to another across India
while retaining the same EPIC.
'I decide the fate of my nation', Uttar Pradesh

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