The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : College students to cross check electoral rolls on April 17

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Apr 03, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

College students to cross check electoral rolls on April 17

By Karthik Subramanian

CHENNAI, APRIL 2. For the first time, the Chennai Corporation is approaching residents' welfare associations and college students to help them double-check electoral rolls. They hope to enlist at least 30,000 persons for a massive verification exercise on April 17.

The civic agency has been undertaking enumeration in the city's 14 Assembly constituencies since March 1. The electoral manuscript will be ready by April 15. Under normal circumstances, the electoral list is published and displayed in the Corporation offices. Though there is an option for residents to check them and raise objections to deletions or inclusions, there have been very few instances of complaints being registered and followed up.

Election officials believe that the cross-verification exercise involving the residents would ensure cent per cent accuracy. They are careful to come up with accurate rolls since the process itself was initiated in the wake of large-scale deletions of names during the May 2004 Lok Sabha elections.

Teams of two members each will carry out the April 17 verification drive; the team members can be from residents' welfare associations and the National Service Scheme of Colleges or retired persons. Each team will cover 50 households. It will be best if the team consists of local residents but it will depend on how the associations react to the exercise, say the officials.

Interested persons may contact the local Corporation office to enrol themselves for the drive. A senior official said every Corporation staff member would participate in the exercise. "If we get enough volunteers, the exercise would be over between 8 and 10 a.m. It would be ideal because it is a Sunday and the residents would be at home."

Call for proactive roll

Former bureaucrat A.K. Venkatasubramaniam, who has been advocating electoral reforms, welcomed the Corporation's decision.

"It is high time the residents' welfare associations and other voluntary organisations took a proactive role in ensuring accuracy of the electoral rolls. This should not be a one-time affair and they must follow it up."

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Massive exercise

There are over 5,000 registered residents welfare associations in the city.

30,000 resident and student volunteers to participate in the verification drive on April 17.

Each team to cover 50 households.

Voter list manuscript will be ready by April 15.

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