In a first,EC to collect voters’ cell nos,email IDs

Electors will get voters’ slips through SMSes and people will be kept informed about various events such as voters’ day programmes and voter registration camps via messages and emails. And,during the polls,feedback will be sought from voters as well.

To make this a reality,starting Friday,the Election Commission will start a door-to-door survey to update its existing electoral roll,verify details of registered voters and collect mobile numbers and e-mail addresses of electors.

This is the first time the EC will collect mobile numbers and e-mail addresses of registered voters and put them on its database.

During the one-and-half month exercise,about 1.28 lakh Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will visit every house to collect details.

The existing electoral roll has more than 11 crore voters in UP above the age of 18 years on January 1,2011.

“During the survey beginning Friday,BLOs will collect application forms of those people who attained the age of 18 years on January 1,2011 but their names have not been included in the electoral roll so far,” said Umesh Sinha,Chief Electoral Officer,UP.

The last revision of electoral roll was conducted in November last year. During the verification exercise beginning Friday,names of voters who have changed their addresses or died during the last six months will be deleted from the electoral roll of the constituency concerned.

BLOs will collect photographs of voters to update the photo electoral roll and issue Electoral Photo Identify Card (EPIC) within 15 days.

As per EC directives,BLOs will have to inform voters about Voter Registration Centres that have opened in their areas where they can submit electoral roll-related grievances. They will also create awareness about online submission of application forms.

The house-to-house survey will be completed in mid-August and after that a final summery revision of the electoral roll will be done from October to December.

During the summery revision,applications of people who are going to attain the age of 18 years on January 1,2012 would be collected. That will be the last summery revision in UP before the Assembly elections that are scheduled next year.