Get voter ID done at home
Poll officials will visit homes with a camera to ensure maximum people get IDs ……ANEESH PHADNIS
Dont be surprised if government officials with digital cameras walk into your housing society. Beginning this week, Election Commission (EC) officials will visit colonies and slums across the city to reach out to voters who do not have photo ID cards.
The drive is a part of ECs efforts to increase voter ID coverage in Mumbai which is low in comparison to other districts. In Kolhapur and Latur, over 80 per cent of voters have election ID cards; Mumbais figure is less than 50 per cent.
The Mumbai city collectorate is also launching an online registration project for voters and its website is expected to be functional next month. Once operational, residents can fill in their registration details online and drop the form print-outs at drop-boxes at railway stations.
On Monday, officials in Mumbai suburban collectorate chalked out a plan to reach out to voters. We will hire three vehicles and 20 cameras for each assembly constituency, an official said adding that staff from various government departments is being deputed for the task. Our aim is to increase the coverage of election ID cards and get more and more voter photographs on the photo electoral rolls. Since our past appeals have not had an impact, weve decided to approach people at their residences, he added.
NEW LOOK FOR PHOTO ID CARDS
NEW LOOK FOR PHOTO ID CARDS
Election officials are also considering a suggestion to not have addresses on the Voter ID cards.Currently, whenever a person shifts residence, he or she has to change the card. Also there are complaints from voters whose address were not correctly registered, official stated.
Chief Election Officer of Maharashtra Debashis Chakravarty, however, denied there was a plan to drop voters addresses from the ID and said there were no serious complaints about addresses not being recorded properly. Voters lists are different from postal addresses, as they take into account localities rather than exact address, he said.