NAVEENA GHANATE
Hyderabad
Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj said that there is huge apathy among urban voters and Hyderabad continues to be the biggest problem when it comes to voter apathy.
In an interview with ‘The Pioneer’ he gave details of election preparedness.
What is the main reason for the deletion of voter names?
Firstly, around 3 lakh voters were deleted because of deaths. The second type of voter deletion is shifting the place of residence. Once they shift their house they apply afresh instead of changing their address. This time due to intensive training we got more Form 8, that is, for updates than Form 6. So that is why this time the number of Form 8s, which is basically a change of address, is almost 12 lakhs. Even during the last election, it wasn’t more than three or four lakhs. The third type is because they have one in rural areas and one in the urban area. This is a slightly more difficult thing for us to detect and delete as it needs coordination between various constituencies. If you look at the overall picture as for the census 2011, about 67% is the population which is supposed to be about 18 years. Our percentage of electors vis-a-vis the population today is about 68%.
What is your opinion about urban voter apathy?
In urban areas, voter apathy is always an issue. Hyderabad is the biggest problem among all districts. More than half of our effort has to go for enrolment and the health parameters of the electoral roll, whether it is additions or deletions or corrections. So that is the reason we looked at Bengaluru and talked to people in other major cities including those in West Bengal. In fact, we went to some other places also to have a look at what they had done for their own cities. We have taken a lot of programmes to ensure that Hyderabad voter percentage is high this time.
What about gender parity among young girls?
It’s a pan-country phenomenon that among 18 to 19-year-old youth the number of females is much less than males. Girls at that age are thinking their parents will get them married. So there is this doubt in their mind whether to get enrolled here or at a new place. Because of that, they don’t take the initiative and get themselves enrolled. This might not be in urban areas but in rural areas, this is becoming an issue. So that’s why we launched a specific programme to go after girls in this age group. We took college lists and then we approached these girls specifically. It was around 500 about 15 days back and we have already been able to bring it to 719.
Can people continue enrolling now that the deadline for SSR is over?
The updating of the voters list will continue after that. So this is one thing that people have in mind that once September 19 is over they cannot register. Even the final list published in October will get updated. After that, we will include whatever new applications come. Normally inclusion in the voters list is considered until the last date for nomination.
How will you facilitate vote at home for 80-year-olds and for PwDs?
We have the list of all the 80-plus people and PwDs who want to vote in their homes. Then we’ll have to make arrangements for them We’ll have to print ballot papers.
So far 5 lakh people have chosen to get themselves marked as PwD. Within that and also, only those people who have this benchmark of 40% or more disability are eligible for home voting. This may be 3 to 4 lakh voters. So it will be a small number at the polling station level. Similarly, 80 plus people will be around the same number.
What is all women’s polling station?
We are creating three types of special polling stations. One is totally managed by women. The second is manned by persons with disabilities (PwD). And the third is just model police stations. It means that it will be decorated and all additional facilities will be there. And so our plan is to have one such polling station in each constituency. So there will be 119 women polling stations, 119 PwD booths and 119 model polling booths.
If more nominations are filed can you accommodate them?
We generally keep a reasonable number of EVMs and have about 73,000 EVMS, which is almost double the number of polling stations. So our understanding is that with these 200% numbers, we can handle any situation. If not we will procure accordingly. It shouldn’t be an issue as the control unit and VVPAT will be one each.
How do you intend to curb the flow of liquor, cash and drugs?
There are about 22 agencies which have been identified by the Election Commission, that is, the IT department, the police and the Excise among others. We have held meetings and infrastructure is being set up. During elections, we generate reports daily but right now we are generating weekly. Currently, there is a slight increase in the seizures of drugs, liquor and cash. Once there are more check posts seizures will increase.
How are you preparing officials?
Lots of training are given to personnel as this is not an activity that everybody is doing daily. This is a one-time activity. People do it and then forget about it. The Election Commission’s instructions themselves keep on evolving. There’s a lot of difference between what happened in 2018 and the instructions now. So training is very important. From October 4 onwards, our focus will move from electoral rolls to training. We inspected 34,571 polling stations and the remaining is in process.
