Names to be deleted ‘automatically’ from EC list after death

Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced that it will launch a nationwide programme to link the server of Registrar of Birth and Death of each district with its server for “automatic deletion” of the voter from the electoral rolls on issuance of the death certificate.

The beginning of the programme would be made from Punjab to tackle the malice of duplicate and invalid voters, the Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi said here on Tuesday.

Addressing the media persons after holding meeting with representatives of various political parties from Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts, Zaidi said that the deletion of voters on death cannot be left alone on the deceased’s family or enumerator but 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 programme 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, Zaidi said that instructions have been issued to all Returning Officers to issue a notice to the voter at his address mentioned in the electoral roll prior to initiation of the deletion process.

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 Centres and other public places so as to give them an opportunity to raise their objections, if any.

“ECI is committed to make electoral rolls totally factual, error free,” he said and sought cooperation of public and political parties to achieve it.

On the issue of far away polling stations, Zaidi said that the ECI is going to formulate a programme under which all polling booths will fall in the radius of two kilometres from voters’ residences. Zaidi was also accompanied by Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab V K Singh and Deputy Commissioner cum District Electoral Officer Ravi Bhagat.

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 per cent Photo electoral rolls in the state.

He said that the new electoral roll will be published on 11 January 2016 with inclusion of 72,000 new voters of Punjab in the roll.

Giving details of his visit, Zaidi said that he was here to review the status of Special Summary Revision work of Electoral Rolls with January 1, 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 7,63,119 names were deleted due to reasons of dead or shifted or repeated voters by following due procedure and 1,86,879 new voters were enrolled in the electoral rolls up to August 2015 in the state.