The special summary revision of photo Electoral rolls today began in Punjab. Disclosing this here today during the meeting with the representatives of various political parties, Chief Electoral Officer of Punjab Kusumjit Sidhu today said that Claims and objections in Form 6, 6A, 7, 8 and 8A can be filed with the ERO’s from 1 October to 31 October 2012 by anyone who has attained the age of 18 as on 01.01.2013. The Draft Electoral Roll has been published and can be seen either with the ERO, the BLO or on the website.She said that against a total projected population of 2,79,81217, the eligible population of 18+ is estimated at 18906820 persons. The draft electoral roll now contains 17675865 voters these covering approximately 93% of the eligible population. The main gap lies in the age-cohort of 18-19 years where the coverage is only 1,47,907 against an estimate of 1090234 eligible persons. In order to target this gap, a special campaign have been launched in each educational institute and through the Nehru Yuvak Kendra and the NCC. A special Campaign for enrolment of eligible persons in the defence services and Govt. service has also been launched.She said that Photo Coverage has risen to 99.87 % and EPIC coverage to 99.90%. The effort would be to take this to 100% during this revision.She further said that The Election Commission has organized intensive training of all its functionaries down to the BLO level to ensure smooth and hassle free enrolment of voters. The State Govt. has endorsed the ECI ban on transfers of Electoral registration related officers and staff to all Departments. The Draft electoral Roll can be seen on the website on which there is also a search facility. Separately, an SMS based query system is also possible by sending a message SMSPJB and sent it to the following number (+919216164605). The CEOs helpline 1950 has also been activated and upgraded for the revision period.She said that the Copies of the Draft roll have been handed over to the political parties. They have been again requested to post Booth Level Agents in all the polling booths to assist the BLO and ERO in making the rolls to clean and healthy.
All BLOs and supervisors are expected to be in the field on the days indicated by the ECI in the schedule for the summary revisions. Teachers who are BLOs will attend to this work after school hours so that the studies of the children should not adversely affected.