EC lifts ban on transfer of DMs

Electoral rolls out; earlier the statewide ban was imposed for the summary roll revision

The Election Commission on Tuesday lifted the statewide ban on the transfer of district magistrates and other officials with the publication of the electoral rolls after summary revision.

The ban was imposed on October 1 last year. This clears the way for the posting of 111 officers who had been promoted from PCS to IAS in November.

After the revision, the number of voters in the state has gone up to 12.97 from 12.65 crore. Around 53 lakh new voters were added to the electoral rolls, while around 21 lakh were deleted, taking the overall increase to around 32 lakh. As many as 15 lakh of the new voters are in 18-19 age group.

Before the Assembly elections held in 2012, there were around 11.19 crore registered voters. Their number increased to 12.65 crore till October 1 when draft electoral roll was published and the special summary revision was started across the state.

The coverage of voters' photographs in the electoral roll is 99.50 per cent and only around six lakh voters in the electoral roll are without photograph. Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha said that the photo coverage will reach 100 per cent very soon.

Voters who attained the age of 18 years on or before January 1 were eligible for registration. " Maximum names were deleted because the voters shifted to other places or died. Around seven lakh names were deleted because of duplicacy," the CEO said.

He said that the distribution of electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) to the newly registered voters had been started and would be completed by month-end.

"The new voters of young age would be given EPICs during the celebration of National Voters Day on January 25," Sinha said.

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