Guwahati, February 18 Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar said on Wednesday that the Special Revision (SR) was conducted in Assam with the sole motive of including all eligible voters and excluding ineligible voters from the electoral rolls.
Addressing a press conference at the end of the 3-day visit to review poll preparedness in Assam, Kumar said the SR was conducted in Assam as it is the only state where the NRC is almost complete.
"According to the law, it is mandatory that electoral rolls revisions are held before elections, and as such, SIR (special intensive revision) was conducted in 12 states while SR was held in Assam," he said.
He said that the SR exercise was successful in Assam, with only 500 people from across all districts in the state having submitted appeals for inclusion of their names or exclusion of others.
There were 2.52 crore voters on the day the SR exercise began and the final electoral roll has 2.49 crore voters and this shows the hard work done by the voters, particularly the Booth Level Officers (BLOs), he said.
Kumar said that if an eligible voter was left out of the electoral rolls, the person can submit an application via Form 6 or directly appeal to the District Commissioners.
Responding to a question on whether names of illegal foreigners have made it into the electoral rolls, the CEC said that the BLOs worked very hard to ensure that a correct list was prepared.
Asked about the possibility of holding polls in the state before the Bihu festival from April 13, Kumar said that it is a very important festival of Assam, and all proposals received during the review meetings from stakeholders will be considered while deciding the poll dates.
He said that decisions will be taken in the interest of the voters and urged them to celebrate the "Festival of Democracy" in the same manner as they celebrate Bihu.
He said that the ECI has taken several initiatives to ensure the smooth conduct of the polls, and this includes webcasting in all 31,486 polling stations in the states.
Out of the total polling stations, 27,711 were rural, 3,775 urban, 3,716 will be managed by women, and 23 by people with disabilities, he said.
There are almost equal male and female voters in the state, while there are 2586 centenarian voters, 66 lakh youth in the age group of and 5.75 lakh new voters have been added.
Kumar said that some other initiatives include ease of voting for senior citizens, for whom polling stations will be ensured on the ground floor, ramps with proper gradient and also a home voting facility.
He said that transport facilities will be made available for the disabled and there will not be more than 1200 voters per polling booth.
A major initiative introduced to voters in Assam was that they could take their mobile phones to the polling station up to the door of the booth, and candidates could set up their booths up to 100 metres away from the polling station, Kumar said.
Earlier, voters were not allowed to carry their mobile phones to the polling station, while candidates' booths could be set up 200 metres away from the polling station.
He said that for the first time in the forthcoming elections, the photographs of the contesting candidates on the EVM and on the list outside the booth will be in colour so that the voters can recognise them easily.
Kumar directed all officials and employees associated with the election process in the state to act with ''complete impartiality and ensure prompt resolution of complaints and grievances of the political parties.
He also urged the authorities concerned to enforce the rule of law strictly without fear or favour.
All information related to the elections, including polling percentage and results, will be available in only one app ''ECINET''.
Prior to the press conference, the CEC also felicitated 100 BLOs who had done exemplary work during the SR exercise and paracyclist Ramesh Banik as the State Icon for Persons with Disabilities (PwD) who had travelled 2000 kms to create voter awareness during the last assembly and parliamentary elections.
He also distributed EPIC to two new voters.
Earlier in the day, the Commission held meetings with the heads and nodal officers of the enforcement agencies, a review meeting with the Chief Electoral Officer, state police nodal officer and Central Armed Police Forces, the Chief Secretary and DGP along with other senior officers of the state government.
The full bench of the Commission — the CEC and ECs Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi — were here on a three-day visit to review poll preparedness for the forthcoming assembly elections.