Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Aug 25: In a step towards 2014 Parliament and Assembly elections, the Election Commission has announced the schedule for summary revision of electoral rolls from September 16 and publication of final rolls on January 6, 2014.
The Commission has appointed 61 Election Returning Officers (EROs) and 9460 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for updating the existing and inducting first time voters across the State.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Election Commission would be simultaneously undertaking the exercise for summary revision of electoral rolls for both Parliament and Assembly elections with January 1, 2014 as cut off date for including young voters, who would be completing the age of 18 years by then.
Jammu and Kashmir presently has about 68 lakh voters for Parliament elections. The West Pakistan refugees are excluded from the voter lists of Assembly elections.
The summary revision of voters beginning September 16 would last one month i.e. till October 15. After this, the Election Commission would undertake the task of including new voters in the lists, excluding the dead voters and making corrections received from the people through EROs and BLOs.
The final list of electoral rolls would be published on January 6, 2014.
The Parliament elections are due to be held in April-May 2014. While this would be final summary revision of electoral rolls for the next Lok Sabha elections, sources said the Election Commission of India would take a decision on whether 2014 Assembly polls in the State would also be held on the same electoral rolls or another revision would be carried out in July-August, 2014 before announcement of the Assembly polls, which were due to be held in November-December next year.
“A decision on whether to go for fresh updation of electoral rolls for the Assembly elections or hold them as per the final electoral rolls to be released on January 6 vested with the Election Commission of India and would be taken after the completion of exercise for Parliament elections,” sources said.
They added that the Election Commission has appointed 61 EROs in the rank of Assistant Commissioners (ACs), Additional Deputy Commissioners (ADCs) and Sub Divisional Magistrates (SDMs) for co-ordinating the exercise for publication of fresh electoral rolls.
Apart from them, the Commission has appointed 9460 BLOs for updating the electoral lists. The Government teachers, Patwaris and officers of the similar ranks would serve as the BLOs.
As per the schedule released by the Election Commission, the youths turning 18 on January 1, 2014 can enroll themselves as voters during the summary revision being undertaken from September 16 for a period of one month.
The voters, who wanted to correct their names or delete the names of dead persons, can also apply for it during the similar period, sources said, adding the people would have to fill the forms for additions, deletions and corrections etc.
The new voters would be issued Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs).
Sources said presently there were 68 lakh voters in the State for the Parliament elections and a little less for the Assembly elections as West Pakistani refugees were not entitled for voting in the Assembly polls.
Authorities were expecting significant increase in the number of voters during summary revision of electoral rolls, beginning September 16, in view of the fact that both Parliament and Assembly elections were due next year.
“The political parties were also going to mobile young voters to include their names in the voter lists for the next year’s elections,” sources said.
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