Special campaign to enrol new voters in Hyderabad

Hyderabad: Dana Kishore, the DEO & Commissioner of GHMC, on Wednesday directed all the Election Registration Officers (EROs) to work with commitment and take up their tasks as per the guidelines and instructions issued by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), failing which severe action would be initiated against the officials for their negligence. The DEO conducted a special meeting with all the representatives of political parties, EROs and election wing officials with regard to enrolment of voters etc., in summary revision of electoral rolls on Wednesday at GHMC head office.

Dana Kishore said that January 20 has been chosen as a special campaign day where all the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will be present at the polling station with voter lists to receive claims and objections. The special campaign would also be taken up on January 22-24 at all the ward offices of GHMC which were equipped with voters facilitation centres manned by an operator with a computer and internet connection.

The EROs should visit all undergraduate colleges in their jurisdiction and urge eligible students to enroll themselves as voters. They should supply sufficient number of forms to the principals of colleges for the purpose. The special campaign would be held from January 9 to 11 between 4 pm and 7 pm at all the polling stations for the convenience of prospective voters to enroll. The electoral rolls should be made available to BLOs in time. Apart from this, 84 ward-level voter verification centres had been set up where the Forms 6, 7, 8 and 8A would be made available for the convenience of the voters to enroll themselves or change their address or other details.

All EROs/ Tahsildar offices would also double as the voter facilitation centres. As many as 11 big malls were identified where drop boxes would be provided along with all the forms. The forms received through drop boxes should be segregated by the officials concerned and should be forwarded to the EROs concerned for enrollment and further necessary action. The BLOs are being paid a sum of Rs 6,000 each as remuneration for the year. Besides, for the six-day campaign, Rs 1,000 has been fixed as remuneration to the BLOs as a token of encouragement to them. The DEO requested the representatives of political parties and resident welfare associations (RWAs) to provide volunteers to help the officials and for facilitating door-to-door campaigns, especially in gated communities. As many as 2.44 lakh votes need be rechecked during these days.

The DEO directed the Additional Commissioner (Elections) to depute all zonal and assistant commissioners as special officers in each Assembly constituency and apprise them of their roles. The DEO directed EROs to conduct a meeting with BLOs on January 10 in the morning and a meeting with the representatives of political parties at 3 pm at their respective offices for transparency and proper coordination. He opined that forms 6,7,8 and 8A should be in different colors for easy identification. ROs should accept bulk forms. He also called for increasing the number of voter facilitation centres during the 2nd phase of special campaign.