TN polls go hi-tech with rolls on CDs

CHENNAI, DEC 12: The Election Department in Tamil Nadu is catching up with technology. For the first time, the electoral rolls scheduled to be published in January will be computerised and their summary revision will be brought out in CD-ROMs and floppies.

Already, the data base is being updated to include the details of the nearly 4.50 crore voters in the State. Although the Election Commission has set April 1 as the deadline, the Election Department is likely to be ready with the CD-ROM by January-end, in time for mid-term elections. The hard copy of the summary revision of rolls is expected to be ready by January 5, the mother roll will come out by the end of January. The newly appointed Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Tamil Nadu, K A Mathew, told The Indian Express that the Election Department would purchase a server and five Pentium computers for each district at a cost of Rs 5.40 crore. This will help in the electoral identity card programme.

ELCOT has been appointed the nodal agency for developing the software. The software design has to be such that it can update the daily orders passed by the Electoral Registration Offices (EROs) on the computer.

REC Tiruchi has been made the technical consultant and asked to develop a system design for automating the Deputy Electoral Officers’ and the Chief Electoral Officer’s office (as mandated by the Election Commission). The cost for computerisation will be borne by the Centre and the State equally and the software will make allowances for future applications.