By Express News Service
Published: 03rd June 2015 06:02 AM
A few of the Elector’s Photo Identity Cards, which were found in the garbage dump, in Vaniyambadi on Tuesday | express
VELLORE: A total of 391 Elector’s Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) were found in a garbage dump in Abu Backer Street in Muslimpur area of Vaniyambadi Town.
Officials of the Revenue Department and Vaniyambadi Municipality launched an inquiry into the incident.
A municipality sanitary worker after collecting garbage from the Muslimpur area on Monday took it to a segregation area and found a bag containing the EPIC cards and handed it to Prakash Babu, a local.
The cards belonged to residents of Wards 14 to 16 in Basheerabad, Shakeerabad and Muslimpur, according to revenue officials. The residents have lodged a complaint and Vaniyambadi Tahsildar, D Senthil is conducting an inquiry.
“The cards were printed between 2008 and 2011 and are for residents in 70 booths in the municipality limits.
The municipality is supposed to distribute the cards to the residents. We are conducting an inquiry as to how the cards ended up in the garbage,” the tahsildar said.
He added that the cards have been handed over to the municipal officials, who in turn, will verify the data of the voters and hand it over to them.
Vaniyambadi Municipal Chairperson Nilofer Khafeel said that it is strange that in the same area Aadhaar cards were dumped in large numbers on two occasions earlier and the complaint was brought forward by the same person, in this case as well.
“We will determine in two days how the EPIC cards were dumped in the garbage,” she said.
Last November, 244 Aadhaar cards were found dumped in garbage at Basheerabad, while a bag containing 75 Aadhaar cards were found dumped on the premises of a locked house at Muslimpur this April.
Postal department officials held a postman responsible for the incidents and had taken departmental action, in that incident.
Residents of the locality were therefore understandably annoyed following this particular incident.