West Bengal CEO plans new EPIC, booth system

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Electoral Officer aims to introduce a robust system to ensure prompt EPIC card delivery, with live tracking for applicants and cards reaching voters within 7-10 days of registration.

In addition, a uniform, technology-enabled system will be set up across all polling booths by appointing a company to build the required infrastructure, ensuring free and fair polls in the 2026 assembly elections, WB CEO Manoj Agarwal told ET.

"Macintosh Burn will be appointed for this purpose. To identify loopholes and plug the gaps, a company will also be engaged to assist the CEO's office and district magistrates in a preliminary review," Agarwal said, adding that the process will begin in the first week of September.

"We will ensure that a uniform system prevails in all the booths- be it infrastructure or any other facilities. We will not operate in a system where during polls, we identify that some socket is not working or a booth does not have CCTV and these get identified just ahead of the polls and a robust system prevails," WB-CEO Manoj Agarwal told ET. With around 94,000 booths across Bengal, vote workers face various types of problems like absence of washrooms."

The DMs used to solve the problems related to the infrastructure.