Ahead of upcoming lok Sabha elections, the UT Election Commission is focussing on maximising the enrolment of electors who have attained the age of 18 years.
For this, the UT Chief Electoral Officer-cum-Home Secretary Anil Kumar has directed the Principals of various colleges of Chandigarh to appoint campus ambassador for motivating, increasing and enrolling the students of colleges who are eligible. It has been further asked to identify the students who attained the age of 18 years and are not enrolled as electors to fill Form No. 6. For this purpose help of NSS, NCC may also be taken.
Anil Kumar said, “At present, the EPR of Chandigarh is 53 per cent and to increase it, maximum enrollment of the electors who have attained the age of 18 years as on January 1, 2014 have been emphasised. “ He has also asked all the banks and post offices in Chandigarh to display banners in their branches as well as ATMs as prescribed by the Election Commission of India showing the information of the Booth level Officer of that area. Also, a box for collection of enrollment forms be put up in their branches and the concerned BlO will collect the forms from their respective banks/post offices.
According to the electoral data as per the final publication of summary revision 2014 released by the Election Commission, Chandigarh has 18,170 electors aged between 18 and 19 years, in which male electors constitute 63.8 per cent and female electors constitute 36.2 per cent. Chandigarh was ranked fourth among seven union territories for the numbers of electors aged 18 and 19 years.
After the special summary revision of electoral rolls in the union territory of Chandigarh, the total number of voters in the city is pegged at 5,80,700. A total of 55,455 new voters including 29,332 male voters and 26,123 female voters were added to the electoral list in Chandigarh.