Officials compile voter list ahead of polls

COIMBATORE: In the coming general and assembly elections, voters might receive periodical updates and alerts about the poll process from the election commission of India. Apart from this there are plans to use social networking and other forms of technology to rope in youth to join the democratic exercise. The project has already begun in Coimbatore where election department officials are compiling the list of voters and storing their mobile numbers in a database to be used in the next round of general and assembly elections in the state.
"It is a massive exercise which we are conducting in a phased manner. We are collecting details about individuals eligible to caste votes and compiling the voter list," said M Sekar, Deputy Tahsildar ( election).
The programme is part of the Systematic Voters Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) initiative of the election commission. The education department here has deputed Booth Level Officers in all ten assembly constituencies in the district including areas under the city corporation. Officials from the election department are conducting door to door campaigns to collect phone numbers of voters.
"We are conducting door to door visits to collect mobile phone numbers from voters for official purpose," said Kalaivani, an official from the election section of the corporation.
The officials have also been conducting field visits to city colleges to create awareness on the importance of casting their votes. Officials are also distributing Form 6 for inclusion of names in the voters list. The initiative in the city began from Government College for Women near Town Hall in the city. As many as 158 forms were distributed at the college which must be filled and submitted to the election department for inclusion in the list of eligible voters.
"We have decided to take the initiative and approach youth instead of waiting for them to approach us. We also advice them on the importance of participating in the elections by casting their vote," Sekar added.
The SVEEP awareness session at the college began at 2pm on Thursday and lasted for about 40 minutes. The session was attended by students from the Bachelor of Education and Master of Education streams accompanied by the college faculty members.
"There is a tendency among the youth to treat elections as a holiday. We believe it is a good initiative to ensure maximum participation in elections from the youth," said Dr Indrani, Principal in charge, Government College for Women, Coimbatore.