Epics locked up in BBMP office

Less than 24 hours before the state goes to polls, lakhs of Bangaloreans didn't get their crucial voter slips to exercise their franchise. Many didn't get their Elector's Photo Identity Cards either, despite having submitted their applications.
The BBMP office in V Nagenahalli near Hebbal,which was to distribute voter ID cards to applicants, didn't open on Saturday.Voters waited in front of the office, where thousands of cards have been kept ready, but there was none to open the shutters and distribute them. "I've come to this office seven times in the past four days. But it's closed all the time. If officials are busy with election work, they must make alternative arrangements to distribute the cards," said Balakrishna TS, who was waiting to collect his 22-year-old daughter Arpita B's EPIC.
"Why are they conducting elections without distributing ID cards to voters? Who are the elections for?" questioned Murali D, who couldn't get his EPIC from the office. There was a protest in front of the BBMP office on Saturday.
First-timers also unhappy
First-time voters are even more frustrated. Aruna Indraneel, 20, from Yeshwantpur, has the acknowledgment given to her by BBMP officials, but her EPIC is yet to reach her. "I got my acknowledgement on April 1. But the card has still not been issued. Officials are only passing the buck, it's quite demotivating," says Aruna, pursuing her graduation in mass communication.
Before this, Aruna's voter ID application went missing in the BBMP jurisdictional office in February 2013, and she was directed to apply afresh. Techies who had enthusiastically applied for their cards were waiting for them as on Saturday evening.
Hari Prasad Hegde, global head - operations, Wipro, was one of the key persons who started voter registration on the Wipro campus. Over 4,000 applications were filed online and the hard copies were given to the BBMP jurisdictional offices. "We haven't received over 300 voter ID cards, despite having acknowledgements," said Hegde.
Overburdened officials
However, a senior BBMP officer said the work of distributing EPICs was affected as the staff was overburdened with election work. "The applicants can go to the polling booths where the undistributed voter ID cards will be given to genuine voters. Because of shortage of time and overload of work, in some places, EPIC distribution was affected," he said. BBMP officers admit they made hardly any progress in distributing voter slips too.