Imagine this: the very day you went to the district collectorate to have a new election photo identity card (EPIC) made, a collectorate
employee came to your home to deliver the EPIC that had already been made. You now have two EPICs, both equally valid. You are not alone in this. There are at least 60,000 others like you in Nagpur district alone. The biggest cause of concern is that this could be a potential security threat if you are not careful with it!
Let us assume that one of these 60,000 people loses one of his EPICs. He is least bit concerned because he already has a spare one. However, what if the 'lost' EPIC lands in the hands of a person who intends to use it illegally? The possibilities, apparently, are endless! Among the worst case scenes, he could commit a murder and put your EPIC beside the victim's body thereby swinging the needle of suspicion to you. He could also use your EPIC to commit various economic offences, and it could either mean you lose a lot of money or are harassed by law enforcement until your name is cleared. And God forbid if the EPIC lands in the hands of someone who bears even a passing resemblance to you!
However, the matter does not end there. The rules say that any person can have his duplicate EPIC issued provided he or she pays a nominal sum of Rs 25! Besides, a person does not even have to lodge a police complaint on losing his EPIC. All he has to do is file an application and fill a form, and a duplicate EPIC would be ready in a few weeks' time.
Actually, in an effort to give EPIC to the most people, the district administration has issued duplicate EPICs in many cases. District collector Pravin Darade had already informed media prior to the assembly elections that nearly 60,000 such duplicate EPICs exist.
Speaking to TOI on Thursday, deputy commissioner of police (crime branch) Kishor Jadhav said, "The EPIC today is a basic identity proof, akin to a person's ration card. In the wrong hands, a misplaced EPIC could wreak havoc. Any foreign national could easily blend in as an Indian this way." However, he was reassuring about an EPIC left at a crime scene. "Proper investigations would easily clear an innocent man," he said.
The collectorate seems alive to the problem. Sources explained that if a person wanted some correction made in his EPIC, or wants to change address, he is expected to return the old EPIC. Only then will he get a new one. The old EPIC is cut, and then burnt, thereby taking away any chance of its misuse.