EC appoints divisional commissioners as observers

Special summary revision of electoral roll is going on across the country except Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh from October 1 with respect to January 1,2013 as the qualifying date.

In other states,which do not have the system of revenue division,the Commission has decided to appoint super time scale IAS officers posted in the state as electoral roll observers in such a way that no person will be required to observe the revision process in more than five districts.

The Commission had directed the observers to visit each district of their charge at least for three times during the period of summary revision. The first visit will be during the period of receipts of claims and objections,second visit during the period of disposal of claims and objections and third visit will be at the time of verification of the working copy of the Booth Level Officers (BLOs),and final publication of the roll.

Observers will have to meet representatives of all recognised political parties during the visit to the districts.

EC has provided the observers check lists for each of the three visits. Observers will have to send a detailed report on all the points in the check list through the Chief Electoral Officer of the state after each visit.

The Commission on Friday briefed these observers across the country through video conferencing about their duties and other important instructions.

UP Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said,“In the video conferencing,the Commission asked the observers to emphasise on clean and healthy electoral roll.”

Sinha said all 18 divisional commissioners in UP have been appointed as electoral roll observers and necessary instructions have been sent to them. Officials said the Commission for the first time has issued such comprehensive guidelines for the electoral roll observers.

In their visits to districts,the observers will have to check various points including the deployment of number of trained BLOs,effectiveness of the call centres as well as grievance redressal system,gender ratio, process of making and distribution of Electroral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs).