Amritsar, NFA Post: On the National Voters’ Day today, the Election Commission of India will be launching the Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card or the e-EPIC.
Union Minister for Electronics, IT and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad will launch the e-EPIC programme and distribute digital voter ID cards to five new voters.
The government will for the first time be issuing voter ID cards in a digital format. Indian citizens already have access to other identity proofs such as the Aadhaar card, driving licence, or the PAN card in the digital format.
The digitisation of voter ID card is to ensure there is no delay in getting voter ID cards as the physical card takes time to print and reach the voter, and the idea is to provide faster delivery and easy accessibility to the document.
The Election Commission celebrates National Voters’ Day on 25 January every year across the country since 2011, to encourage, facilitate, and maximize enrolment, especially for the new voters.
This day is aimed to spread awareness among voters and for promoting informed participation in the electoral process.
Today, President Ram Nath Kovind will virtually inaugurate the 11th edition of National Voters’ Day celebration to be held at Ashok Hotel, New Delhi.
Things to know about e-EPIC
- The e-EPIC will be a non-editable secure PDF version.
- In the first phase between 25-31 Jan, only new voters who have applied for their voter cards and have registered their mobile numbers with the Election Commission will be able to download their digital voter ID cards.
- From February, all voters will be able to download their digital copies, if their phone numbers are linked with the Election Commission.
- Voters who do not have their phone numbers linked will have to get it done to avail of the download feature.
- New voters will also get hard copies of their voter ID cards.
- Digital voter ID cards can be stored on Digilocker.
- The digital cards will carry a secured QR code
