EPIC enrolment to be conducted 4 times a year
New initiative to benefit youths completing 18 years after Jan 1
Shillong, Aug 1: The enrolment process for voters’ ID cards will now be conducted four times a year as compared to once earlier.
Speaking at a state-level programme to launch linking of voter ID cards with Aadhaar and other new initiatives was held in the city on Monday, Chief Electoral Officer FR Kharkongor highlighted the major modifications in registration forms of the ECI. He also dwelt at length about the linking and authentication of electoral rolls data.
Kharkongor informed that now enrolment will be conducted on the first day of January, April, July and October. “There will be more opportunities for young people to enrol themselves in the electoral roll. This is a very significant change which has come about under the initiative of the ECI,” said the CEO.
Earlier, a large number of youth who had completed 18 years after January 1 had to wait for the Special Summary Revision the next year for enrolment and were not able to participate in elections held in the intervening period.
Another important initiative is the simplification of forms. Form 6 B has been added that states that the newly eligible electors or previous electors are free to furnish their Aadhaar card details to the electoral registration officer so as to enable linking of the EPIC and the Aadhaar card.
Kharkongor stressed that the linking of the EPIC and the Aadhaar card is voluntary. The objective of this linkage is to establish the identity of electors and authentication of entries in electoral rolls and to identify registration of name of the same person in more than one constituency or more than once in the same constituency.
Form 6 will be exclusively for the registration of new voters, Form 8 is the standalone form that will cater to all the various changes an electorate need in the electoral roll. In Form 7, there is also a provision for attaching of death certificate to make the process of deletion simpler.
Since the polling for the assembly election will take place next year, Kharkongor urged deputy commissioners to conduct extensive exercises on the low registration constituencies and polling stations and ascertain the reasons of the low registration and also formulate strategies, awareness programmes and mechanism on how to bridge the gap in these low enrolment pockets.
