Voter List Revision Program Deepak Agarwal District Magistrate Gautam Buddha Nagar, U.P.

Voter List Revision Program as per the schedule of ECI Revision program aims at inclusion of new eligible voters, deletion of ineligible ones and purification of electoral rolls This time the emphasis was to have maximum inclusion of new eligible voters in the electoral roll. To this end various innovative steps were taken in the district

EMPHASIS ON CAPACITY BUILDING/ TRAINING Comprehensive training sessions were organized for booth level officers, supervisors and sector officers. DEO/ ADEO and other senior officers were involved in the training

Strategy Adopted for IEC Two pronged approach was adopted; One to motivate and make voters aware of the campaign and secondly to make things simpler for the eligible voters to get enrolled by maximizing reach and simplifying the procedure. To make voters aware: – Campaign Vehicles were deployed in the district. They were fitted with Hydraulic Signage and were parked at strategic locations for maximum visibility. – Banners and posters were used for making people aware of the Revision Program.

Strategy Adopted – Media was aptly utilized for making people aware of the revision program. Both Print media and Electronic Media were enrolled. Every news item was monitored and media was briefed properly about the program and schedule. – Cable TV operators were called for a meeting and were requested to run strips regarding Revision program and schedules on prime time slot. – Cinema halls and theaters in the district were also included in the campaign. They were made to run short documentary films before start of the movies and during interval.

Strategy Adopted – There are several Web Companies also in the district which run portals of local news like “Parichowk.com”, which were requested to popularize the revision program on the web. Web presence in turn has affected on-line enrollment positively. – SMS campaigns were also run in the district. Bulk messages were sent to people eliciting importance of enrollment in the electoral roll and what facilities are being provided by the district administration like where all drop boxes have been placed, schedule of Booth Level Officers and online registration’s URL.

Strategy Adopted Apart from political parties NGOs /RWAs were also involved to enhance the reach. Various representatives of all stakeholders were called for a meeting and whole process was explained to them. They were also given forms for far and wide distribution amongst eligible voters. Power point presentations were made in front of Industry Associations and large factories by senior officers regarding the revision campaign.

Educational Institutes There are several Educational Institutions in the area, so they were also targeted for enhancing enrollment. Form 6 was given to various colleges and Nodal Officers were appointed in every college for making students and teachers aware of the campaign. Various operatives like Ration Dealers in the rural and sub-urban areas were made a part of the campaign. They were trained for spreading awareness of the revision program.

Ration dealers, a great helping hand Besides the other village level workers fair price shop dealers proved very effective in increasing the photo coverage specially in rural areas The newly elected pradhans were also a bonus

Strategy Adopted To make the process of enrollment simple and easy, following steps were taken; To ensure presence of BLO’s at the booth they were photographed right at the booth on the day of publication of working roll. Jan Suvidha Kendra at the Collectorate/subdivisions were made as the control center for the activities related to voter list revision Help line number was obtained and widely publicized for attending to queries of public.

Strategy Adopted Well equipped teams with all the forms and camera men were deployed in societies on Saturdays and Sundays to cover working population. Drop boxes were placed at strategic locations like malls and markets, government offices and other locations of high foot fall like community centers and colleges. In all 55 drop boxes were placed and this has proved to be specially helpful in increasing the enrollment of new voters.

Strategy Adopted – Mobile numbers and ids of EROs and AEROs were publicized for providing quick answers to any question that people might have regarding the process etc. – To increase faith of people in the system, messages are being sent in case of rejection of form 6 and they are informed about the lacunae that is there in the form that has been deposited.

The Result Due to the all round approach adopted for increasing the enrollment of new eligible voters, in all 95,000 form 6 were deposited in the district and they are being scrutinized before data entry, which is also going on at three different locations, one for each Assembly Constituency. Various innovative ideas and multimodal strategy has paid well in terms of photo coverage also as a result of which the photo coverage went up from 89% to 99.4%

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