For the first time, the Election Commission (EC) is going to introduce electoral rolls in alphabetical order to facilitate voters check their names in the electoral rolls conveniently.
The electoral rolls will be prepared with the first name in alphabetic order in Odia and would be provided to all the booths during the forthcoming elections, said the State Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Raghu Ram Iyer.
Talking to newsmen here on Friday, Iyer said the finalization of fresh revised electoral rolls and preparation and distribution of the elector’s photo identity card was in full swing. The new provision of preparation of the electoral rolls in Odia alphabetic order and display of the rolls at all the 35,896 booths have been made to help voters, poll officials and agents to locate the names easily and without wasting time, he said.
Iyer said that the district administration would provide voter slip containing the name of the voter, his polling booth, serial number and the time of voting to the voters a week before the poll day and near the polling booths on the voting day. The booth level officer (BlO) would be liable to distribute the voter slips to all the enrolled voters at their door steps, he said, adding that the voters can collect their slips in person from the BlO as well.
The EC has also directed that the voter slip be printed in language in which the electoral roll is published. The voter slips will also be accepted as identity proof of voters at polling stations, Iyer said, further adding that the EC has stopped the practice of circulation of voter slip earlier by political parties.
Iyer said this time the EC has launched the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) to maximise voters’ participation in a focused manner. The comprehensive measures for voters’ education and awareness were taken up during the summary roll revision process from October to December, 2013 across the State.
These measures will also continue during the electoral process and the DEOs have been directed to ensure wide dissemination of election relation information and also for carrying out SVEEP, he said.
Iyer also said that targeted inventions have been taken up to meet shortfall in turnout among various segments of population at polling station levels. He said a massive awareness campaign was being undertaken in partnership with various organisations like Angawanwadi centres, NSS, Door Darshan, BSNl, Nalco, MCl, Nehru Yuva Kendra and the State Culture department to bridge the youth and women voters’ gap.
Stating that only 11 lakh youths in the age group of 18 to 20 could enroll as voters of the 15 lakh youths figured in the Census list, Iyer said that as on January 15 last, the number of voters in Odisha stood at 2, 88, 80,850 and continuous updation of voter list would continue till ten days before the elections to help maximum number of people vote.
In the special camp held in booth level across the State on March 9 last, he said as many as 2.09 lakh applications were received for enrollment in the voters list. All persons who have applied for electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) after January 15 would be provided the cards on March 27, 28 and 29 and those who have applied before January had already been provided EPICs.
Iyer said that during the voter updation campaign from January 16 to March 5, as many as 93,600 applications were received for addition, 20,000 for deletion and 1.15 lakh application for correction.