The special summary revision of Delhi's electoral roll with January 1, 2022 as the qualifying date is all set to begin from November 1, and in the run-up to the exercise, the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has taken a number of initiatives to ensure no voter is left behind in the process.
From physically reaching out to the youth and others through various events to hosting meetings online with representative heads of various colleges and universities in the city, the poll body has made efforts to connect with as many electorates as possible, despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer, through its social media platforms, has endeavoured to expand its outreach ahead of the latest special summary revision (SSR) of the election roll, and special digital posters have been put up on its Facebook and Twitter handles to raise awareness about the exercise.
During this SSR, any person who would be 18 years or more on or before January 1, 2022 will be eligible to enroll as a voter. The final roll will be published on January 5, officials said.
Delhi's last electoral roll was published in January 2021, according to which the total number of eligible voters in the city had then stood at over 1.48 crore.
Special Summary Revision of electoral roll with respect to January 1, 2021 as the qualifying date, was done in all 70 Assembly constituencies of Delhi.
"In keeping with the vision of 'no voter to be left behind', a series of events and outreach programnes have been organised, and more will be held, to reach out to the masses, so that eligible people can get enrolled," a senior official said today.
On Monday, Delhi CEO Ranbir Singh is slated to interact with representatives of about 100 NGOs, and on Wednesday he will interact with officials of various departments of the CEO Office, on the SSR, he said.
On October 21, Singh had interacted online with principals of 49 colleges of Delhi University, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Ambedkar University Delhi and Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women on activities associated with the SSR, he said.
During the event, he had said that claims and objections can be filed during the whole month of November, and the final electoral roll will be published on January 5, 2022.
Keeping the objective of 'no voter to be left behind' in focus, "we consider social media as a key partner for making the election process participative and inclusive," the CEO said.
"Today's youth is tech-savvy and spends a lot of time on social media. We should therefore interact with them, where they spend their time the most and motivate them to become proud voters of our great democracy," he said during the meeting.
The online interaction session aimed at promoting voter awareness and encouraging the youth to enrol as voters, and Mr Singh urged the representatives of the colleges and universities to leverage their own social media handles, besides time during online and offline classes, to "spread electoral awareness among their students and faculty".
The total number of electors in the final electoral roll of the Delhi as on January 15, 2021 had stood at 1,48,98,069 which was 2,05,933 more than the total electors -- 1,46,92,136 -- in the final roll published on January 6, 2020, the CEO Office had earlier said.
Singh had earlier said that a specific social media cell under the supervision of a nodal officer, is assisting the chief electoral officer in strengthening process of voter awareness and electoral participation. This social media cell aims to provide innovative solutions to spread voter awareness to a wide range of audience, he said.
Electoral literacy clubs (ELCs), voter awareness forum, established in various colleges, are sensitising students about electoral rights and electoral process of registration and voting through interesting activities and games, officials said.
Earlier this month, 'CEO Helpdesks' were set at various special Lok Adalat sites in Delhi by the poll body, seeking to offer assistance to the public for voter identity card enrolment and other electoral processes.
These sites include the court complexes at Karkardooma, Tis Hazari, Patiala House, Saket, Rohini, Rouse Avenue and Dwarka.
The helpdesks' purpose is to provide every possible assistance like searching of name in the voter list, enrolment for voter identity card, etc. to the general public.
The CEO has also emphasised the need to adopt online mode of availing electoral services via the website or the Voter Helpline Mobile App in order to stay safe from COVID-19.
In keeping with the need for technology-driven advancement in the electoral process, Mr Singh recently had directed district authorities to ensure that those booth level officers who cannot handle smartphones are replaced by tech-savvy personnel during revision of electoral rolls.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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