Now, voter slips at your doorstep

‘Poll officials will distribute the voter slips along with photographs to encourage people to exercise their franchise’

Chief Electoral Officer Bhanwarlal said that starting from April 15, officials on poll duty would themselves start visiting the 2.82 crore households across Telangana and about 3.63 crore houses in the rest of Andhra Pradesh, handing over ‘voter slips’ personally, in a bid to encourage people to exercise their franchise.

At a ‘Meet-the-Press’ organised by the AP Journalists Federation here on Sunday, he said the slips would have photographs, as found in the Electoral Photo Identity Cards and once the slips were handed over, officials would specifically request people to come to the polling booths and cast their vote. This way, it was expected that poll percentage would go as high as 90 per cent in the State.

Officials on poll duty were specially trained in telling people that this was a festival of sorts when their exercising their franchise would have a bearing on their future and that of the State and Nation. About one-third of the 90 lakh voters enrolled in recent months were youth, he said, pointing out that these votes would be key to the overall polling percentage.

Rs. 100 crore seized

In response to a question, he agreed AP was getting a bad name for money distribution around the time of the elections, what with a whopping Rs. 100 crore being seized thus far. However, he explained that money caught anywhere in the State, regardless of the mode in which it was transported, was being termed as that being carried to influence voters. He said that when money was seized in this fashion, the Income-tax Department automatically came into the picture and asked questions.

If the person concerned proved the source of the money and its legitimacy, it was fine. Else, the police were booking cases against those who were found in possession of the money. However, officials were unable to establish the involvement of candidates, he said.

Asked about checking of police vehicles and those belonging to senior officials, especially those retired from the All-India Services, Mr. Bhanwarlal said such vehicles were not being spared.