Nadia, 17 June (H.S.)

The Election Commission is going to take many unprecedented steps in the upcoming Kaliganj Assembly by-election to be held on June 19. The Commission claims that in the coming days it is going to become a role model for all elections across the country. In a press conference on Tuesday, the Commission issued guidelines for the Kaliganj Assembly by-election. The Election Commissioner said that this initiative is to increase transparency and citizen cooperation in elections. From now on, the maximum number of voters at each booth is being increased to 1200. Which means that the total number of booths in the state is going to increase in the coming days. According to sources in the Commission, till now the total number of booths in the state was 81 thousand. This time due to the new rules, it will increase to about one lakh. At the same time, from now on, the Commission has decided to use forces like NCC and NSS for vote related work . Apart from that, voters will carry their mobile phones with them, but at all the booths, a place will be provided to keep them before entering the booth. The Commission informed that a total of 23 initiatives have been implemented between February 19 and June 10 to make the elections more transparent, participatory and technology-based. This will be seen for the first time in the Kaliganj assembly by-election. From this point of view, this election is going to be a model for the whole country.

From now on, the serial number and part number will be clearly marked in the voter slip. After a long gap of twenty years, SSR (Special Summary Revision) has been completed before a by-election. Some procedural improvements have been made. For example, digitization and upgradation has been done for quick publication of VR trends and reports. Also, the ECINET dashboard has been launched, which will bring together more than 40 apps/services. A new system has been created to solve the problem of duplicate EPIC numbers. The Commission has also made arrangements for additional empowerment of election personnel. For example, from now on, BLOs (Booth Level Officers) will be given standard photo identity cards. According to sources in the commission, more than 3,000 BLOs have already been trained. One lakh more BLOs will be trained in future. Apart from this, communication and orientation programmes have also been organized for media officials and police officers from the state CEO office. The commission has also held several meetings with political parties this time. The commission said that this step is to make every future election more technology based, information based and participatory. This will be implemented in every election to be held in the country in the coming days.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey