Gangtok, April 13: For voters in Sikkim who have not obtained their electoral photo identity cards they can now produce 14 other documents to prove their identity at the polling booths.
A notification to this effect appears in the Sikkim government gazette, dated April 6. The document has been released by the Election Commission and carries the signature of Election Commission secretary K.W. Wilfred and additional chief electoral officer of Sikkim D.L. Topden.
The order states that, apart from the electoral photo identity cards , a voter could produce at the polling booths identity passports, driving licences, income tax identity (PAN) cards, service identity cards (state, central public sector, local bodies), bank or post office passbooks, student identity cards, property documents, ration cards, Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe or Other Backward Classes certificates, pension documents, railway identification cards, freedom fighter identity cards, arms licenses, certificate of physically handicapped.
Only 98 per cent of the residents in Sikkim have received EPICs.
Joint chief electoral officer C.P. Dhakal today said the department was presently concentrating on appointing presiding officers and polling officers for 349 polling booths in the state.
“A presiding officer would be assisted by six polling officers in each booth. Booths having voters for the Sangha seat would get additional officers,” he explained.
In another poll-related event, the state election department today called Sikkim Democratic Front legislator R.B. Subba and Congress working president Ashok Tshong, who are up against each other in the Soreng constituency, to discuss the spurt in violence in Tharpu in west Sikkim.
Cong recruit
Gangtok, April 13: Tseten Tashi Bhutia, who resigned as the convener of the Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee (Siblac) on Saturday, joined the Congress formally today to contest the coming polls.
Bhutia met state Congress president Nar Bahadur Bhandari and was formally inducted into the party at the Congress Bhavan on Jeewan Theeng Marg today. He has also been officially declared the party candidate from 20 Pathing constituency in east Sikkim.
