KOCHI, May 7, 2015
K.A. MARTIN
Officials supervising the National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) in the district are concerned about the ‘lukewarm response’ from the public to the programme.
The officials are worried whether they would be able to complete the exercise before the May 15 deadline. One of the officials said the sheets meant to be distributed to individual voters were printed and ready only by April 24. Since the earlier deadline for collection of the completed forms was May 5, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) had to scurry to cover their ground, which might have allowed errors to creep in, said an official.
Many people approached by BLOs, tasked to directly contact individual households , had shown little interest in the process, said a Revenue Department official. A BLO said many of them had to visit households four to five times to get all the details.
Some people were averse to getting their colour photographs ready; others, especially the older voters, were not interested in updating data or getting their details corrected, said another BLO.
However, most of the taluks have seen near total distribution of the sheets to be completed by voters.
One of the BLOs said some people appeared fatigued by the recent train of cards that included the Aadhaar card and linking of the cards to bank accounts to get subsidies for which they underwent similar formalities.
One of the officials said there was also a lack of awareness among the public about the ongoing exercise and its significance. NERPAP was launched on a mission mode by Election Commission of India in collaboration with C-DAC to authenticate the electoral rolls and to get it linked to Aadhaar. The programme aims to eliminate duplication of names in the electoral list and to make it error-free.
Meanwhile, a senior Election Commission official said there would be booth-level campaign on May 17 to get the electoral rolls error-free under the ongoing programme. BLOs will be available at the voting booths to help people complete the forms and to collect completed forms.