The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Poll roll web search facility launched in the State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 10, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Poll roll web search facility launched in the State

Special Correspondent

Efforts to make the election process citizen-centric, says Naresh Gupta

CHENNAI: : Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said on Thursday that web search facility and online registration facility were launched in the State as part of the efforts to make the electoral process citizen-centric.

He told a press conference here that these facilities would be made available in Chennai and other Corporation areas in the middle of July.

The web search facility in Tamil was aimed at improving voters' accessibility to the electoral rolls, besides getting a feedback and improving the quality of the rolls.

It would enable them to search their names and find the location of polling stations.

An Assembly constituency-wise search could also be made with the elector's name or electoral photo identity card number. Details could be obtained by selecting the respective polling booths.

Facility in English soon

The facility in English would be added shortly. "To enable the voters to type their names in Tamil, a floating key board is provided on the search page, using which voters can enter their details."

The facility would help in detection of multiple entries of names, besides identifying duplicate cards.

As for the online registration facility, Mr. Gupta said any person with an e-mail account seeking enrolment could avail himself of the facility. Before registering his name, he had to confirm the enrolment status.

The system involved filling up the mandatory fields for name, age, address, pin code and e-mail ID in an online form, similar to Form-6.

This would be followed by an e-mail confirmation. The e-mail would have provisions for confirmation, modification and deletion. On confirmation, the details would be forwarded to the Collector.

Then it would be printed and sent by post for verification and getting the applicant's signature. The names of the applicants, who fulfilled the eligibility criteria, would be included in the rolls. They could verify their names after the publication of rolls in the web site.

"At present, the facility is being made available during the period of claims and objections as part of the ongoing revision exercise" in the tsunami-hit districts.

Bulk applications

Replying to queries on the issue of bulk applications for inclusion of names in the electoral rolls, he said the Election Commission had given instructions to deal with the claims and objections received in constituencies covered by the summary revision. The Electoral Registration Officers should reject any form, which was not signed by the applicant or objector or did not carry his thumb impression. Forms without the present address of the applicant and those submitted by persons below 18 years as on January 1, 2005 should also be rejected.

Details given to parties

The details of the new applicants were given to the recognised political parties. The cases of applicants in the age group of 18-25 applying for the first time would receive special attention.

Erring officials would be dealt with severely, he said.

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