CHENNAI: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) B.B. Tandon, during his two-day visit to Tamil Nadu beginning on Monday, is expected to speed up the process of "preparedness" for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

Based on his interactions with officials connected with the poll process, the Election Commission is expected to take key decisions on the strategy to be adopted for the polls slated for April/May.

Enquiries with the EC reveal that high on Mr. Tandon's priority in the discussions will be voter ID cards, called the EPIC, and preparation of error-free electoral rolls. These are considered crucial for ensuring "free and fair polls."

Revision, verification

Revision and verification of electoral rolls, with January 1, 2006 as the qualifying date for inclusion, are under way. Mr. Tandon will hear first hand from District Electoral Officers, progress on this front. In his discussions in Coimbatore (Monday) and Madurai and Chennai (Tuesday), he will also get a picture of the problems. The "stuffing" of electoral rolls and subsequent filing of complaints against those who lodged bulk applications are bound to crop up, say EC sources.

Official sources are pointing to "onerous tasks" thrust upon Revenue staff over the past year. "Starting from the December 2004 tsunami, the official machinery in the State and district levels has been engaged in one emergency after another. They have to take up the electoral rolls revision and verification work as well. Many of them have hardly been able to concentrate on their work in the departments,'' explains a senior official.

Another problem is the issue of voter ID cards. Officially, it is claimed that over 70 per cent of the registered voters have been given the cards.

But in effect, 10 to 15 per cent has either returned the cards, citing wrong entries, or have not received them. At least two attempts were made to ensure up to 85 per cent coverage, but it did not succeed.

EC sources say that once the final rolls are ready, another drive to videograph voters and issue cards on the spot may be undertaken.

The EC will take a final decision. Previous attempts failed because of technical problems faced by the contractors.

Delimitation panel

The Delimitation Commission meeting last week in New Delhi took up the redrawing of constituencies in a few more districts in Tamil Nadu.

According to some associate members, only a few districts remain to be covered.

"There will be one more meeting with us in February, when the preliminary exercise will be completed. After that the official and formal processes of finalising the boundaries of 39 parliamentary and 234 Assembly constituencies will be gone through. "Public hearings will be held after the Assembly elections followed by the final notification on the bases of objections and submissions," an associate member explains.

It will not affect the Assembly elections.

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