EMN
DIMAPUR, APRIL 4
‘Cleaning up’ Nagaland’s infamous electoral roll is not just a responsibility, it is a duty, the chief electoral officer of the state has stated. The Chief Electoral Officer of Nagaland, Sanjay Kumar, met with government officials in regard to cleaning of Electoral Roll of the Nagaland, at the Hotel Japfu on April 4 in Kohima town.
Deliberating on the issues pertaining to the NERP 2016 drive, the CEO stated that to clean up the present Electoral Rolls, it requires collective supports of all government and private Institutions, state level nongovernmental organizations and every responsible citizens. It is the duty and responsibility of every individual in the state, Kumar said.
Stating that Nagaland was the only state in the country with a negative growth rate in the last decade, the CEO remarked it as a serious abnormality. He asked the departments to contribute as to how best ‘we could collaborate and cooperate to strive for the successful implementation of this drive.’
Kumar urged the departments to educate, spread awareness, motivate their respective employees on NERP 2016 and the SVEEP and ensure that there should not be multiple registrations in the E-Roll and also to go for Aadhar Card entry to link up in the E-Roll. The CEO added that a pledge card would also be a supporting measure which he said might ‘bring about changes in the initiative.’
The CEO informed in the meeting that there was also an award for ‘some good practices’ which has been stipulated by the Election Commission of India.Taking part in the discussions, Commissioner & Secretary for youth resources and sports Menukhol John felt that the reason for the multiple entries in the electoral roll was ‘because of the human issues/problems’ and encouraged the departments to ‘think out of the box in order to tackle the issue.’ Also, the secretary for Forest, Imtienla, suggested that in order to spread awareness, a common message and series of discussions on the issue in local dialects can be broadcast on FM Radio. The Joint Forest Committees in Nagaland and Eco-Clubs under the Nagaland Pollution Control Board can also spread information in their respective areas, she said.
The director of Youth Resources & Sports, Asangla Imti, also said during the meeting that the department would be educating and ‘create awareness’ on the SVEEP among various organizations in the state such as the NYK, the NSS, the BS&Gs, and the NCC. She also shared her past experiences as an electoral officer. She said that the most active group in the rural areas during elections were women groups and the youths while in the urban areas it was the unions.
Deputy Chief Electoral Officer Vekho Vero also gave a brief account of the SVEEP and the celebration of the 6th National Voters’ Day. He requested all departments to spread information in their department’s websites to celebrate National Voters’ Day.
The NERP, 2016 is an intensive drive which was launched on 1st March, 2016 and is to be completed on or before 31st August, 2016. NERP, 2016 drive was launched with its main objective to improve the health of the Electoral Roll (ER) and to rationalize the Polling Stations (PSs) boundaries and location.
The NERP drive will also include enrolment of all citizens and removal of repeated and multiple entries, entries of dead, shifted and absent voters, correction of errors in EPIC and removal of other data errors. During this drive, repeat images will also be corrected, missing photographs will be collected, and poor quality of images will be replaced by good quality photographs.
