Nearly a month after it was launched, hardly 0.5% (2,48,029) of the State’s total electorate of 5,10,67,157 has participated in the Electors Verification Programme (EVP). This includes a meagre 7,530 voters from the total electorate of over 90 lakh in Bengaluru.
While Election Commission officials admit that the progress of EVP has been slow and that they are concerned over the non-participation of voters in the programme, voters blame it on the booth-level officers (BLOs). The BLOs, who were supposed to take up a house-to-house verification from September 1 to 30 to authenticate and verify information, are hardly visiting the houses. That apart, the mobile application given to the BLOs to verify and upload the details is not working most of the time.
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The Election Commission had announced the EVP from September 1 during which voters could verify and authenticate their existing details on the electoral rolls and get their names included, deleted or corrected. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) for Karnataka Sanjiv Kumar had announced on August 31 that the EVP would be taken up with the help of Systematic Voter Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP).
The BLOs in the city that The Hindu spoke to said they were finding it difficult to do house-to-house visits as they were also burdened with tax collection and other BBMP work. “We are not able to outsource the work as there are not many takers for it from the government departments. We have been told that we can deploy the services of government school and anganwadi teachers but they are not willing to participate as the remuneration is meagre,” said a BLO from Bengaluru North on the condition of anonymity. “Moreover, the mobile app that we have to use to verify and upload details does not get connected to the server most of the times,” he said.
Although some enthusiastic voters in the city are visiting BBMP offices in their area to verify their details, they are finding it difficult to get it verified there too. “I went to the BBMP office at Kempapura Dasarahalli to get my details verified. But the data entry operator there was very rude and unhelpful. He sent me away saying the software is not working,” said Bobby Parveen, a resident of the area.
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Additional Chief Electoral Officer K.N. Ramesh said that with the special summary revision of rolls on till January 8, there was still time for voters to take up the verification process. The verification process would go on till October 15 and people could file claims and objections then till November 30. The final electoral rolls would be published on January 8, he said.
Pointing out that people should not just wait for the BLOs to come to their house for verification, he said they can do it online too by visiting the National Voters’ Service Portal (NVSP).
“But not all residents are computer literate. Most people prefer to get it done at the common service centres or through BLOs,” said Venkatesh S. from Sunkadakatte.
How to verify
Voters can verify their details using ‘Voter Helpline’ mobile application, by logging in to National Voters’ Service Portal, by visiting Common Service Centres (CSCs) in their vicinity, or by submitting hard copies of filled-in forms to the Electoral Registration Officer through their booth-level officers.
Persons with disabilities can call voter helpline ‘1950’ to seek facilitation. People can visit Bapuji Kendras located in gram panchayat offices and Atal Janashree Kendras of the Revenue Department. They can verify their name, photo, date of birth, father’s name, and address. If every detail is correct, they can mark it as verified. If any detail needs correction, they can submit request in Form 8 along with a copy of identification documents approved by the Election Commission.