Soon voters will be able to check their name in the voters' list just by sending an SMS. In a bid to assure voters of their registration, Delhi's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Vijay Dev announced an SMS service which will begin from July 1 through which voters will be able to check their name, constituency, nearest polling booth and other electoral details.
"Voters will only have to send a keyword to a specific mobile number. We will announce the numbers shortly," announced Dev. With the nearing Assembly elections in the Capital, the electoral officials will conduct a summary revision of electoral rolls to add as many voters as possible on their rolls and eradicate all the hindrances that occur in the process of voting.
Sharing the pre-election preparations in a Press conference here on Friday, Dev said there is a need to "purify the electoral roll especially to enhance the roll of the youth and women." The electoral body has also taken disciplinary action against several officers for inefficiency. The body has issued warnings and suspension letters to officials like Sub Division Magistrate (East Delhi), EROs and AEROs for misconduct, non-performance and inefficiency at work.
"We have taken stringent steps against 82 officers to improve the efficiency of the entire system," said the CEO.
Expressing concern over the prevalent issue of misuse of voting by non-image voters, the electoral body claims to have reduced the number of such voters from over 7 lakhs to nearly 3 lakhs. "Our target is to have zero non-image voters this time," asserted Dev.
The revision is scheduled to begin on July 1 with the draft publication of the rolls following which the public will be able to file objections till July 22. Final publication of electoral rolls will happen on September 2.