The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Chikungunya hits photo poll roll programme

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 15, 2006
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Chikungunya hits photo poll roll programme

K. Manikandan

Several officers are going on medical leave

TAMBARAM : The prevalence of chikungunya in the State and its impact are not only a matter of concern for local bodies and officials of the Health Department but also had a severe impact on the photo electoral roll programme in Tambaram and Alandur Assembly constituencies.

Most of over 500 government staff roped in for the programme have been taking medical leave at regular intervals, citing high fever and body pain — symptoms of chikungunya. The programme, which started on June 22, was to have reached an advanced stage with the completion of checklists so that electors' photo identity card could be prepared in the offline mode and despatched to residents.

But considering the present status, the entire programme could take, at least, another couple of months. The programme was started in these two constituencies as part of a State-wide scheme to prepare a list of those residents, who did not have the electors' photo identity card. As part of this, a door-to-door verification was undertaken to prepare a checklist of the electoral roll so that cards could be issued to those who did not have the ID cards. Tambaram and Alandur Assembly constituencies have been divided into 547 and 319 parts respectively and initially more than 500 government staff, mostly school teachers, were appointed as Field Verification Officers (FVO). Though it is usually Village Administrative Officers, who are appointed to verify, it was not possible as there are only around 40 VAOs in both the constituencies put together. Each FVO was assigned more than one part and covering dozens of households everyday was a tall order. The door-to-door verification was not an easy task and the severe heat during the recent summer and symptoms of Chikungunya had its toll on the FVOs. Many government teachers were unable to continue their door-to-door verification programme, reason for the delay.

Further the abysmally low level of awareness and preparedness among the residents about the verification also hampered the programme, officials said. Verification of families that had the ID cards, details of corrections, additions and deletions would be noted down in addition to ascertaining complete information for those voters who did not possess any.

Based on this, a final checklist would be prepared and published to give a chance to voters to make further corrections if any. Once it is through, the offline voter ID cards would be distributed. The process of distribution of EPIC to residents has been never been smooth with some problem or the other coming up. However, officials are confident that once the present programme is completed, there would be very little room for complaints.

The entire programme was initiated keeping in mind the next Lok Sabha elections, still three years away. It has been planned to make sure that all voters in the State have their ID cards.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu