The Election Commission of India (ECI) is going to launch Electronic Electoral Photo Identity Card (e- EPIC.)
The official launch of the e EPIC Programme is scheduled on the 25th of January, marking the National Voters Day.
The ECI said, “Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad would launch the e-EPIC programme and distribute e-EPICs and Elector Photo Identity Cards to five new voters.” Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology and Communications Minister of India would launch the e EPIC programme.
The launch event is scheduled to be held at Ashok Hotel in New Delhi.
Ram Nath Kovind, the President of India, would participate in the event virtually from the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
According to sources, e EPIC is a non editable secure portable document format (PDF) version. It would have a secured QR code with image, serial number and part number.
E EPIC can be downloaded on a mobile or a computer and can be digitally stored.
With this, along with the Voter IDs, this virtual soft copy would also be used during voting.
The new initiative to make voting and voter IDs digital would be in two phases.
In the first phase, from the 25th of January to the 31st of January, all new voters who have applied for the voter ID card and registered their mobile numbers in Form 6 would be able to download the e EPIC by simply authenticating their mobile number.
In the second phase which would begin from the 1st of February, the general voters who have given their mobile numbers (linked one) during the registration of voter ID can also download their e EPIC.
Electors would be able to download the electronic version of EPICs via voterportal.eci.gov.in, nvsp.in and the Voter Helpline app.
Other websites to download e EPIC:
Voter Helpline Mobile app (Android/iOS)
Voter Portal: https://voterportal.eci.gov.in/
NVP: https://nvsp.in/
Voter Helpline Mobile App
Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eci.citizen
iOS https://apps.apple.com/in/app/voter-helpline/id1456535004
The launch comes ahead of the Assembly elections in five states, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
