Voter outreach initiative launched in Telangana

After facing flak over missing names in voters list in recent assembly polls, the Election authorities in Telangana have launched a unique voter outreach programme of sending letters with reply postcards to one crore people seeking grievances if any.

Under the initiative launched a few days ago, over 10 lakh letters with self-addressed reply postcards had already been delivered by the booth-level staff across the state, Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Rajat Kumar said.

The aim was to cover one crore voters by January 20, he said adding if the voters had any issue regarding the voters list they can record the same in the postcard, addressed to the office of the CEO, and post it.

"Through this we will be getting a direct feedback at the CEO's office. This is a unique effort to reach out to every citizen and encourage them to participate in elections, Kumar told reporters here.

The CEO said he had met the state Postmaster General and requested him to ensure supply of enough postcards.

In the assembly elections held on December 7, there were allegations of missing names in voters list.

On the polling day, the CEO had apologised to those who could not vote as their names did not figure in the list and said the mistakes would be rectified. Prominent among those who found their names missing was badminton star Jwala Gutta.

Replying to a question, the CEO said Gutta and her fathers names were deleted from the voters list during the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) in 2015.

The latest initiative was being carried out through the Systematic Voters Enrollment and Education Programme and the letter gives details about the procedure for enrollment, change of address and deletion of names among others, he added.

Already, the special summary revision of the electoral list was underway and about 15 lakh new voters were expected to be enrolled this year, he said.

The final electoral roll for the current year after the revision would be published on February 22.