Mangaluru (The Hindu): Voter slips and Electoral Photo Identification Cards will be distributed to voters at the polling booths on Monday, said Deputy Commissioner and District Electoral Officer Sasikanth Senthil S. here on Sunday.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Senthil said that the booth level officers (BLOs) started issuing voter slips and EPICs on Saturday. Of the 50,000 applications for fresh enrolment, 47,000 were accepted and they will get their voter slips and EPICs soon. The Election Commission has directed the BLOs to personally hand over the two documents.

Mr. Senthil said that on Monday BLOs will be at the polling booth to hand over the voter slips and EPICs. He said that additional personnel will be deployed to reach the two documents to all eligible voters by May 9. He said that the voter facilitation centres will be functional in each polling booth on the polling day to help voters to know about the booths they have to caste their votes in.

Mr. Senthil said that production of voter slip, which has the photograph of the voter, was enough proof to identify the voter on the day of polling. In absence of voter slip, a voter can make use of 12 documents, including the EPIC, Aaadhar card, Passport and Driving Licence, as a proof of identity.

On a request from voters from over 60 polling booths of the need for transport facility to reach polling booths, Mr. Senthil said that the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation has been asked to submit a plan. “It would run special buses or extend services of the existing bus routes,” he said.

Mr. Senthil said that of the 11,000 personnel involved in polling duty, 7,928 personnel have so far applied for postal ballots. All polling personnel will be given postal ballots. Polling personnel can submit postal ballots till 5 p.m. on May 12. He was among the officers of the district to make use of postal ballot, Mr. Senthil said.