CHENNAI: It is never too late to become a voter. The Election Commission of India has unfolded an opportunity for people to register themselves as voters and also the citizens to verify their electoral details.
People who have not been able to register themselves as voters and those who find errors in the electoral rolls or migrate to other constituency could utilise the special summary revision of the roll with the first of January 2020, as the qualifying date.
The month-long verification programme would commence on Sept. 1. Speaking to reporters after chairing a meeting of recognised political parties here on Wednesday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Satyabrata Sahoo, informed that the draft electoral roll would be published in mid-Oc-tober.
“The Election Commission of India with an objective to improve the health of electoral rolls and enrollment of all eligible citizens has introduced Electors Verification Programme (EVP). The programme starts on Sept.1, 2019 and ends on Sept. 30, 2019. A meeting with recognised political parties was conducted today to brief them about EVP,” he told reporters.
Through this programme, people can verify their electoral details through the following ways: Voter Help Line no. 1950 (for senior citizens & PwDs only), Mobile App, (voters help line), National Voters Service Portal (nvsp.in), visiting Common Service Centres (CSC) or submitting hard copy of filled up forms through BLOs to EROs. The applicants can authenticate their details relating thereto, by submitting a copy of one of the following documents: Indian Passport, Driving License, Aadhaar Card, Ration Card or any other document approved by ECI.
As to the role of political parties in the special summary revision, he said the recognised political parties can identify and appoint Booth Level Agent (BLA) for each polling station who would identify the corrections, deletion and modification in electoral rolls along with Booth Level Officers (BLO). The Commission has allowed BLAs of recognised political parties to file applications in bulk, subject to the condition that a BLA shall not submit more than 10 Forms to BLO at one time/in one day.
The electors may also utilise the service of BLA of their area for making necessary updation of their details in the electoral rolls, the CEO, added.
