The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : College students to help in enrolment of youth as voters

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 16, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

College students to help in enrolment of youth as voters

T. Ramakrishnan

CHENNAI: City college students will be involved in the dissemination of information to eligible youth on enrolment as voters.

To begin with, students of the city-based M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women will be involved. The students’ council 2007-2008 of the college will carry out a campaign, “Youth for Democracy,” that is aimed at encouraging widest possible participation of the city youth in the democratic electoral process, according to Naresh Gupta, Chief Electoral Officer.

“Actually, it is their (the students’) initiative,” Mr Gupta told The Hindu after addressing a press conference to announce the schedule for summary revision of electoral rolls with reference to January 1, 2008 as the qualifying date.

The relevant forms would be given to the college students for enrolment of eligible students in the age group of 18 years and above.

The students would be educated about the procedure and the period of enrolment. The authorities would closely coordinate and assist them in the conduct of the campaign, Mr Gupta said.

In a day or two, a list of all colleges, government, government-aided and private, would be obtained from the Director of Collegiate Education and the Elections department would send communication to all the colleges on the enrolment drive.

The schedule for summary revision of electoral rolls in the case of Chennai district was different as the programme of coverage of residual electors for capture of their images for the electoral rolls was still on.

The assembly constituencies of Villivakkam, Tiruvottiyur, Tambaram and Alandur had a heavy electorate size and therefore, the process of integration of rolls would take more time.

The electoral roll with photographs of voters was published in May/June during the last revision conducted with reference to January 1, 2007 as the qualifying date. The supplementary list was published in September.

The mother roll and the supplementary roll would be integrated and published as draft photo electoral roll for the ensuing summary revision to be conducted with reference to January 1, 2008 as the qualifying date. During the proposed revision, those who had completed 18 years of age, i.e., those born on or before December 31, 1989 were eligible for inclusion.

The e- registration (electronic registration) facility would be enabled with the publication of the draft rolls. The relevant forms would be available on the website of the CEO’s office ( www.ceotamilnadu.nic.in).

Any applicant seeking the registration had to submit on-line form 6 or form 8A with the passport sized-photograph as an attachment. .

On the coverage of photo electoral rolls, he said that the overall coverage of the State was about 96.5 per cent.

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