EC to review poll roll coverage,appoints special observers

The team led by deputy election commissioner Vinod Zutshi will be in Jhansi on Saturday to review the electoral roll preparations in the districts falling under Jhansi and Chitrakoot divisions. The same team will conduct a review of Aligarh division on August 24 while the review of other divisions will be held later. The review of Lucknow division will be held in first week of September.

During the review,the EC team will meet the Divisional Commissioners and District Magistrates and take stock of progress in coverage of photo electoral roll coverage and distribution of Electoral Photo Identify Cards (EPIC) in their districts. The team will also inspect the voter service centres in some assembly constituencies and inquire about the steps being taken to meet the target of 100 per cent electoral roll coverage.

During the review meeting held last month in Lucknow,Quraishi had directed the District Magistrates to achieve 100 per cent coverage in electoral roll and EPIC distribution in next two months.

“The EC team will review the electoral roll preparations,roll management and training of booth-level officers ahead of summary revision,” said Umesh Sinha,Chief Electoral Officer,UP.

Meanwhile,the Commission has also appointed 18 special observers for monitoring of electoral roll revision in the state. These observers are senior IAS officers posted in different states other than UP. They are likely to start visiting different assigned districts in the state from first week of September. They will monitor the electoral roll revision process and send their report to the Election Commission regularly.

Sinha said the appointed observers will monitor the roll revision work till January 2012 when the final revised electoral roll for 2012 Assembly elections will be released.

As of now,in UP,only 91.13 per cent voters have been covered in photo electoral roll while 92.98 per cent voters have been issued EPICs.