January 25 will hereafter be celebrated as National Voters' Day, Chief Election Commissioner S. Y. Quraishi said on Saturday.
The date marks the foundation day of the Election Commission of India. On that day, young voters, who attain the age of 18 years on January 1, will be given Electors' Photo Identity Cards (EPIC).
Acknowledging that the maximum gap in voters' enrolment in the age group of 18-21 years, Mr. Quraishi said the participation of the youth in the political process was rather low. The youth's involvement has to be increased.
He was addressing a meeting held by a host of organisations on free and fair elections and combating money and muscle power.
Pointing out that the Commission would organise a “very big” event for the youth on January 25, the CEC said that in the next two months, the EC would identify those who would become eligible voters on January 1. Electoral rolls would be published on January 5. The EPICs for young voters would be made ready on January 15. On January 25, in 900,000 polling booths all over the country, the cards would be given to 20-25 young voters each. “Twenty to twenty five million new voters will be added to the voters' lists.” President Pratibha Devisingh Patil had agreed to hand over the cards to young voters who would be attached to the polling booth in the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
By the end of November or first week of December, the Election Commission would conduct a national level conference of citizens. Activists and members of the media from every State would be invited to participate in the meet. On the issue of paid news, Mr. Quraishi said the Commission had set up district committees with the representatives of citizens. It had asked Press Council of India to suggest its representatives. The Commission's Media and Expenditure Divisions would monitor reports that would appear in the media during elections as to whether they were news items or surreptitious advertisements in the garb of news. In the recent meeting with political parties, a suggestion was made on the committee of experts to go into modus operandi of the paid news phenomenon.
The Commission's suggestion of making paid news a corrupt practice through a legal amendment was unanimously agreed to by the parties. On enhancing security of electronic voting machines, the CEC said that in the meeting held on Monday last, political parties had suggested a “voter verifiable paper trail” in the EVMs with a view to making the machines more transparent and fool proof. The Commission had referred this suggestion to its committee of experts. The EC told the committee to hold wide consultations with security experts and civil society before framing a proposal, Mr. Quraishi added.
