Gram Sabhas to spread electoral roll revision awareness

Gram Sabhas would be held in all villages across the country as part of the awareness campaign for the special summary revision of electoral rolls, being undertaken with January 1, 2017, as the qualifying date, an official said in Agartala on Thursday.

"The four-month long special summary revision of voters' lists is being undertaken following the instructions of the Election Commission (EC). Different states have different schedule of the revision keeping in mind the local conditions," Tripura's Additional Chief Electoral Officer Debashish Modak told IANS.

He said, "Gram Sabhas would be held in all villages, and similar public gatherings would take place in municipal council or corporation areas, to make people aware about the special summary revision of photo electoral rolls across the country."

"At least two Gram Sabhas must be held in each Gram Panchayat area during the revision of the rolls."

The official said, "The commission wants an error free voters' list, including all eligible people in the vital rolls. In the Gram Sabha, existing rolls would be read out and appropriate steps would be taken on the spot."

The dates of the Gram Sabha would be fixed by the EC in consultations with the states concerned or election authorities.

Modak said that in Tripura, the draft electoral rolls were published on Thursday across the state as part of the special summary revision of photo-affixed voter's rolls.

Currently Tripura has 2,443,438 voters, of them 1,197,784 females.

"In each summary revision of electoral rolls two to three per cent voters were increased. This is an all India phenomenon. However, during election year, the increase is slightly more," the official added.