Several political parties on Friday urged the Election Commission to arrange for immediate distribution of voter identity cards to those who had not yet been given them or whose cards were lost in floods.
At a meeting chaired by Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Kumar here to brief recognised parties about recent stipulations regarding Assembly elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Communist Party of India and the CPI (Marxist) wanted that in the absence of voter identity cards, such voters, particularly those belonging to the poorest of the poor and who were living in villages, should be given alternative document of identity.
In such cases, the Election Commission should desist from insisting on the production of passports, driving licences and permanent account number (PAN) cards, all of which could be easily possessed by urban dwellers and economically well-off sections of society.
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The AIADMK said that a number of cards were lying unattended at many offices of tahsildars. The DMK said it would extend its cooperation to the Election Commission for smooth conduct of elections. The ruling party and the Pattali Makkal Katchi wanted the closing time of campaigning to be fixed at 11 p.m. instead of 10 p.m.
The Congress submitted that those making false complaints through the proposed toll-free number should be proceeded against.
Among those who attended the meeting were K. Ponmudy (DMK), Pollachi V. Jayaraman (AIADMK), Peter Alphonse (Congress), Tamizhisai Soundarajan (BJP), G. Palanisamy (CPI), K. Balakrishnan (CPI-M) and K. Balu (PMK).
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