The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed to hold special camps at all polling booths in the State on Sunday, March 9, to include the names of all the eligible voters in electoral rolls.
At these camps, booth level officers will sit to oversee the electoral rolls. One copy of electoral rolls will be pasted on the wall of polling booths so that the voters can check their names. The electoral rolls will also be read out at the camps for the convenience of illiterate people.
Booth level officers will also carry Forms 6, 7, 8 and 8A, which will be filled up by the willing persons. The commission has directed to ensure large scale publicity of these camps. It has directed that the public announcement, at the local level, should be made through drumbeats. District election officers have been directed to inform the respective political parties about such camps.
They have been asked also to urge the political parties to make their booth level agents available at the camps. Facility of filling up forms of willing voters will also be available at the camps. After filling up, the officers will undertake physical verification, local scrutiny etc and then submit the forms to ARO. ARO will dispose of forms after completing process in 11 days. Special initiative will be taken at the camp to include the names of all remaining eligible voters.
The commission has also directed to undertake publicity that EPIC card holders can check their names in electoral rolls and fill up Form-6 if their names are missing from electoral rolls.
According to the commission, EPIC is only an identity document and a person cannot vote, despite having it, if his\\her name is not included in the electoral rolls. The commission has directed to send details of the filled up forms received at the camps in the prescribed pro forma.
Instructions have been given to provide area-wise information of received forms on Chief Electoral Officer’s website. Meanwhile, states have been asked to receive the information and details of the forms by March 11 and dispose them by March 20. Soon, the commission will also hold a video-conference in this regard with the CEO and DEOs.