In voter ID, Naz is Narayan

DARBHANGA: Tabassum Naz, a voter from Darbhanga town, got the shock of her life when she received her voter ID card recently. The Election Photo Identity Card (EPIC) figured her name in English as Tabassum Narayan! Her name in Hindi printed on the EPIC (CFB-1194091), however, remained unchanged.
The matter took an even more curious turn when many more such EPICs were discovered to have the word Narayan added to the names of voters in English.Sultana Khatuns name in English became Sultnarayan Khatun while the name of Krishna Devi was changed into Krishnarayan Devi. Likewise, Nabib Iqbal Ahmad became Narayanjib Iqbal Ahmad.
So, while the data with regard to the preparation of EPICs presents an encouraging picture, this bizarre error has made these figures redundant . Sources said the word Narayan became a common denominator of identity for people in several wards even as the fresh exercise of EPIC preparation continued.
A large number of EPICs of voters in at least eight wards of Darbhanga municipal corporation have been rendered useless due to this mistake, complained a booth level officer. An official involved in distributing EPICs said: ‘‘ We are the soft targets of voters, who, irked by the mistake, reprimand us for no fault of ours. So, we have stopped card distribution.’’ According to SDO (Sadar) Sanjay Kumar Singh, the error crept into the EPICs due to a software problem.
"Those who have received such cards should return them to their respective BLOs and fresh EPICs would be issued to them," he said.