Manual PURE Rolls mooted by NGO

With millions of residents moving into India’s cities and even moving within a given city, there’s a need for a manual PURE Rolls (Proper Urban Electoral Rolls) which is critical given the dynamic nature of urban voters.

Janaagraha, the Bangalore-based non-profit organisation’s work in Shantinagar, has estimated that approximately 10 per cent of voters in any constituency change in a given year. Hence, for a constituency of 200,000 voters (the normal size for an Assembly Constituency), this means approximately 20,000 names need to be deleted in any given year, and an additional 20,000 names need to be added, for new residents moving into that area.

 

The present system of updating voter lists once a year around November, depending on school teachers and revenue inspectors who have several other obligations, means the likelihood of the system getting overwhelmed by the volume of transactions which is very high.

Acknowledging this phenomenon in urban areas, and making suitable changes to the management of urban electoral rolls is critical.

The Manual for PURE Rolls would take into account all the specific steps and changes needed to be undertaken in the electoral roll management system, and produce a document that would be available to all stakeholders involved in urban electoral roll management. “With such a systematic process for PURE Rolls in urban areas, the Shantinagar experience could now be scaled up and made sustainable across urban India,” said Ramesh Ramanathan, co-founder, Janaagraha.