ELECTORAL ROLL
MANAGEMENT
Presentation by D.K.Mishra,
Deputy Commissioner, New
Delhi
Importance of Electoral Roll in
Democracy
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Electoral Roll is the basic document for holding
Election in a Democracy.
Names of all eligible Citizens are recorded and
maintained in Electoral Roll as electors.
Accuracy and purity of rolls are therefore corner
stone for holding the elections.
Any inaccuracy are insufficiency in coverage of
the electors not only becomes an issue but also
impacts the election process as such.
Process of Electoral Roll
preparation
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Electoral
roll
is
prepared
under
the
superintendence, directions and control of
Election Commission of India which has been
vested with these powers under Article 324 (1) of
the Constitution of India.
Electoral Revisions and up-dation are undertaken
in following manners:1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Intensive Revision
Summary Revision
Partly intensive and Partly summary.
Special Summary Revision
Continuous up-dation
The Electoral Rolls in Delhi and any other parts of
country are prepared constituency wise.
Eligibility for Registration in Electoral
Roll
Eligibility
1.
2.
A person should be a citizen of India.
Should not be less than eighteen years of age on the
qualifying date as prescribed by the ECI.
3. Should be an ordinary resident of the Constituency.
Disqualification:- As per section 16 A of RPA of 1950
following are disqualification:1.
Is not a citizen of India.
2.
Is of unsound mind and declared so by competent court.
3.
Is disqualified from voting under the provisions of any
law relating to corrupt practices and other election
related offences.
The issues and problems in the Preparation
and Maintenance of Electoral Rolls
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Preparation of Electoral Rolls in Metropolitan City
like Delhi which has more population than a
country like Newzeland is a mammoth task.
There is no permanent machinery for preparation
and maintenance in most of the States.
Despite establishment of VRECs for regular
Electoral Registration/Up-dation, work of EROs is
the additional responsibility of the ADMs/SDMs.
Illiteracy amongs the people even in Metropolitan
City like Delhi.
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Lack of interests during the non election period
on the part of electors and political parties.
Non submission of the requisite details in the
case of people coming to reside in Delhi from
other parts of the country.
Migratory nature of the population specially in
Metropolitan city like Delhi.
Frequent shifting of residence by the electors
either within the ACs or across the ACs resulting
in duplication in the registration of such voters in
the Roll.
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Non availability of a regular cadre of BLOs with
the EROs and Non availability of sufficient
number of BLOs to be appointed for each Polling
Station.
Lack of proper accountability at the level of BLOs
in the context of such duties being additional
work.
Lack of interest or resistance on the part of the
department in deputing the officials from their
department for performing additional duties as
BLOs.
Non-availability of sanctioned strength of the
staff in the department itself.
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Indifferent attitude amongs political parties in
attending meetings with the DEOs during non
election period in the process of preparation of
electoral rolls as also inaction on their part in
appointing Booth Level Agents (BLAs).
Mass
displacement
of
electors
due
to
demolition/removal of jhuggies or unauthorized
places of residence.
Difficulties in identification of the citizenship of
the applicants specially in the clusters/
unorganized structures.
Non-cooperation of public during the period of
receiving claims and objection in checking their
names and particulars in the published draft rolls
and even during the door to door survey by the
BLOs.
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Difficulties in achieving 100 percent
image coverage because of noncooperative attitude of those who
were issued EPICs in the past and
where such images could not be
retrieved and integrated with current
rolls.
Mushrooming of large number of
unauthorized clusters, residential
colonies.
Initiatives in Delhi for regular
preparation/maintenance of Electoral Rolls and
issues of EPICs
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Wider publicity/awareness campaigns were launched through
various electronic and print media.
For the summary revision, for the year 2011 communication have
been addressed directly by the CEO, Delhi to HODs of the
Universities, Colleges, schools and other prestigious institutions
with supportive infrastructure for inclusion of names of students in
the Electoral Rolls to maximize the Youth Coverage in the Roll.
Appointment of Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for each Polling
stations by drawing officials from various departments.
Appointment of supervisors over minimum five to ten BLOs for the
supervision of the working of BLOs.
Identification of designated locations within the doorstep of the
electors for filing claims and objections.
Identification of officials to be appointed as Incharge of the
designated locations and other supporting staff to facilitate the
prospective electors to file their claims and objections at the
locations setup for this purpose.
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Setting up of Voter Registration and EPICs centre
at a centralized place of each Assembly
Constituency for the convenience of the public.
Appointment of AEROs and other supporting staff
to provide access to the public in filing claims and
objections round the year.
Interaction with various RWAs and Market
Traders Associations to encourage the public for
registration of eligible persons in the electoral
rolls.
Organization of intensive training schedule for
BLOs, Supervisors and Designated officers to
familiarize them with the procedure to be
adopted by them while recommending enrollment
of any persons or otherwise in the electoral rolls.
Special efforts in preparation of
error free rolls.
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Direct communication to educational institutional Heads for
encouraging the students in enrolling themselves alongwith the
necessary support system.
The concept of Table Top Checking of the various claims and
objections was conceived and implemented successfully all over
Delhi.
The basic idea behind this exercise was to receive forms complete
in all respect and to delete duplicate names.
A system of multi layer checking was also put into place all over
Delhi.
In this system 100% checking was done by the BLOs followed by
20% by the Supervisor of the work done by the BLOs.
Another layer of checking by the EROs/AEROs was also a part of
the exercise.
Random checking of the five percent of the verification conducted
at the level of District Election officer of each District in Delhi for
ascertaining the accuracy and appropriateness of the rolls.
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Appointment of Special Observers by the ECI for
ensuring accuracy and coverage of electors in the
rolls by the EROs.
Deployment of Special teams by the ECI to
ensure that the electoral rolls are properly
prepared.
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Delivery of EPICs at the resident address of the
Electors through the BLOs.
Suggestions
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Since VRECs centres have been established on
permanent basis, regular staff should be posted
for manning the each centre instead of present
system of ad-hoc appointees/daily wagers.
To address the issues of non-availability of
sufficient number of BLOs, instructions needs to
be issued by the ECI to the concerned
department while BLOs duties are assigned to
their officers.
Political parties need to be addressed at the
highest level for appointment of BLAs to ensure
accuracy and purity of rolls.
In the absence of the interests from such parties
they should be barred from making
representations at a subsequent stage.
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During revision all the designated locations in
Delhi should be linked with the Central server in
a manner that the daily receipt of claims and
objections should automatically transmits to the
central server and the concerned VRECs.
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Data base of the electoral rolls of the all the state
should be interlinked so that cross verification
could be conducted by the EROs in respect of
voter shifting from one constituency to another.
NCT of Delhi has a vast pool of community
mobilizers at the Gender Resource Centre
(GRC)/District Resource Centre (DRC) under the
Samajik Suvidha Scheme.
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This pool could be utilized for community
education, mobilization and participation as an
effective tool for ensuring the coverage as also
the accuracy of the details of the electors.
In Delhi we have more than 250 Jeevan Kendras
providing various facilities to the public at single
window system. The services of these Jeevan
Kendras could be utilized for maximization of
image coverage and improvement in the electoral
roll.