The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Residents' welfare associations to be enlisted

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 28, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Residents' welfare associations to be enlisted

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 27. Residents' welfare associations (RWAs) and gram sabhas (village councils) will be enlisted for electoral rolls revision, senior Election Commission officials told district election officers (DEOs) today. Copies of the draft electoral rolls would be made available to the RWAs and gram sabhas.The Postal department might be involved in verification and receiving of claims for inclusion in the rolls. In addition, the services of political parties would be used.

The EC officials met the DEOs of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Vellore, Tiruvannamalai, Cuddalore and Nagapattinam at the Secretariat here to brief them on the modalities for rolls revision.

A week ago, the Election Commission announced a schedule for rolls revision with January 1, 2005 as the qualifying date.

Naresh Gupta, Chief Electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu, said the idea of involving the RWAs was tried out successfully in Maharashtra.

A.N. Jha, Deputy Election Commissioner, and K.R. Prasad, EC Secretary, urged the DEOs, who were also District Collectors, to give personal attention to rolls revision to avoid recurrence of the problems witnessed during the Lok Sabha elections held in May last. Numerous voters complained that their names had been deleted or left out.

Voter ID cards

The meeting also deliberated on online receipt of applications for inclusion.

Though photo identity cards were not on agenda, the issue of redressing complaints from those holding valid cards but not being able to exercise their franchise came up for discussion.

On Friday and Saturday, the EC officers, accompanied by a team of senior officials of the State Election department, will hold discussions with the other DEOs in Madurai and Coimbatore.

The Chennai Corporation Commissioner-DEO, who could not attend the meeting, will take part in the discussion in Coimbatore.

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