According to Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Sen, Anandababu — the interface mechanism between voters and the election commission — received around 35,000 calls last week, from which the machinery could take only 4,000 calls.

It seems that the voters of the state have several queries related to the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC).

The cartoon character, Anandababu, was adopted by the Election Commission (EC) to attract voters to obtain their EPIC. It was found that at present around 90 per cent voters have photo identity cards.

The reasons behind the failure in reaching the target of 100 per cent, are lack of awareness among the voters and the need of accessibility to the election offices for registering themselves as voters and having an EPIC to cast votes.

The election office has got only six telephone lines installed to receive calls from the entire state. Due to huge congestion in the lines, most of the voters are not able to speak to Anandababu.

“We have received several complaints regarding the helpline. We are receiving huge response from the voters that cannot be entertained. We are trying to satisfy the voters as much as possible,” said Sen.

The election mascot in the state is unable to serve its purpose, as the voters who have been queuing up in the borough offices for getting their EPIC or for correcting several discrepancies in the voter identity cards are at the receiving end. As a result, the public is still suffering as it used to be the case in earlier times.

“We are not getting connected with Anandababu. I tried several times to call the number, but after being connected the automated voice says that the call will be attended shortly and then everything goes blank. My call has never been attended,” said Anirban Sarkar, a voter waiting in the office of Borough VI for getting his EPIC card.

The government employees deputed at the borough offices by the EC appear to be very rude.

They don’t cooperate with the voters who have queued up for long hours. Moreover, the system is not computerised and it is being operated manually.

Eventually, the protocol also absorbs a huge time.