School students to help ECI raise voter enrolment in UP

For this,state Chief Electoral Office (CEO) has prepared a format and its copies were distributed among 50,000 students in more than 125 government and private schools in Lucknow on Thursday.

In these forms,the students will list the names of persons from their families and neighbourhood who are above 18 but their names have not been included in electoral roll or have not been issued Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPICs). The students have also been given ECI badges.

After the survey,the students will submit the forms to school authorities who will give them voter registration application forms. The students will then get these forms filled by the applicants with all necessary documents and submit them with school principals who will send them to District Election Officer (DEO). Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will verify the documents and prepare the EPICs with the help of voter registration centres. Within 15 days,these EPICs will be distributed among voters.

BLOs will also inform the school authorities about the number of voters registered and EPICs issued on the applications received through their students. Officials have estimated that over 2 lakh students in Lucknow could cover at least 6 lakh households.

Officials said later other districts will also be directed to follow this model and coordinate with the local schools over there.

“This new experiment will make the voter registration process convenient both for the voter and the BLO,” said Umesh Sinha,Chief Electoral Officer,UP.