The Election Commission on Wednesday corrected a photograph in the voter identity card issued to a man from Ramnagar village in Murshidabad district in West Bengal, the Hindustan Times reported on Thursday. The poll panel had earlier issued Sunil Karmakar a voter ID with a dog’s photo on it.
“This is an old issue which happened during EVP [Electors Verification Programme] where this form was submitted with this photograph,” West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer Aariz Aftab said. “Subsequently, it has already been rectified. Elector information slip with the correct particulars has already been given to him. EPIC is being given.”
Aftab added that an inquiry was being conducted and action would be taken against the person who issued the ID.
However, Karmakar remained irate, alleging that he had been conned. “There were some errors in my voter ID card so I had applied for a correction,” Karmakar said. “When the corrected card came, the information was correct, but my photo had been replaced.” Karmakar claimed the poll panel wanted to humiliate him publicly.
An unidentified government official in charge of correcting errors in voter ID cards said he did not know how the mistake was not rectified. “We noticed the dog’s picture after the publication of the draft voters’ list,” he said. “I rushed to Karmakar’s residence and brought back a picture of the man. But I am clueless as to how the card got printed with the dog’s photo anyway.”
Karmakar said that on Tuesday, he was called to the Dulal Smriti School, where he was given the voter ID, ANI reported. The officer present there signed the ID but did not look at the photo. “This is playing with my dignity,” the man alleged. “I will go to the block development office and request that this should not happen again.”
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