ECI to start automated deletion of names from electoral rolls on issuance of death certificate

Amritsar, Dec. 29 (Punjab Post Bureau)- The Election Commission of India today announced to launch nationwide program to link the server of Registrar of Birth and Death of each district with the server of Election Commission of India to automatically delete the voters from electoral rolls on issuance of death certificate of an individual.  The beginning of the program would be made from Punjab to tackle the malice of duplicate and invalid voters.

            Addressing the media persons after holding meeting with representatives of various political parties from Amritsar and Tarn Taran district, Chief Election Commissioner of India Mr. Nasim Zaidi said that the deletion of voters on death cannot be left alone on the family or enumerator and it has to be automated in the system and ECI would like to use latest technological tools to tackle this problem. He said that Punjab would be a pilot project under its e-District program and after its success it would be replicated to the other parts of the country.

            Referring to the issue raised by representatives of Political parties regarding wrong deletions from electoral rolls, Mr. Zaidi accompanied by Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab Mr. V.K. Singh and Deputy Commissioner cum District Electoral Officer Mr. Ravi Bhagat said that instructions have been issued to all returning officers of Punjab to issue a notice to the voter at his address mentioned in the electoral roll prior to initiation of process of deletion. He said that after not receiving a reply or objection from the voter, Returning Officers would ensure that lists of voters to be deleted would be displayed in Panchayat Ghars, Block Offices, Common Places, Community Centers and other public places so as to give them an opportunity to raise their objections, if any. He said that ECI was committed to make electoral rolls totally factual, error free and he sought cooperation of public and political parties to achieve this aim.

            Mr. Zaidi said that the issue of far away polling stations was also raised by political parties and the Election Commission of India is going to formulate a program under which all polling booths will fall in the radius of two kilometers from voters residences. Answering a media query the Chief Election Commissioner of India said that the ECI has planned a campaign to be launched in all School/Colleges/Universities through campus ambassadors so that the students attaining the age of 18 could be enrolled in Electoral Rolls. He also lauded the office of Punjab Chief Electoral Officer for ensuring 100 percent Photo electoral rolls in the state. He said that the new electoral roll will be published on 11 January 2016 with inclusion of 72000 new voters of Punjab in the roll.

            Giving details of his visit, Mr. Zaidi said that he was here to review the status of Special Summary Revision work of Electoral Rolls with 01.01.2016 as qualifying date. He said that Election Commission of India has launched The National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme(NERPAP) in March, 2015. During intensive door-to-door verification 763119 names were deleted due to reason of dead, shifted and repeated voters by following due procedure and 186879 new electors were enrolled in the electoral rolls upto August 2015 in the state. Answering another query Mr. Zaidi said that the state machinery have been directed to initiate preparatory work for 2017 General Elections in the State.