India, Oct. 17 -- Amid demands by some Opposition parties that the Election Commission of India (ECI) withdraw its direction to verify identity of burqa-clad women at Bihar's polling stations, the poll body on Thursday claimed it is implementing a decision taken as back as 1994 when TN Seshan headed the poll authority.
An ECI spokesperson said that in October 1994, the poll body had ordered a dignified method of identifying burqa-clad women electors at polling stations. "...To protect the sensitivity regarding privacy of women voters, separate enclosures for identification of purdahnasheen women should be provided in the polling station with locally available but absolutely inexpensive devices and using local ingenuity, such as use of char...