Network issues hamper geo-tagging electoral rolls

ECI’s purification of voter information underway

Spot verification: Officials collecting data from voters at Kachkanti village in Adilabad rural mandal.

As part of the electoral roll purification the Election Commission is geo-tagging the address of the voter, which is hampered by the quality of the network signal in the district.

The National Electoral Roll Purification (NREP) programme of the ECI to remove all discrepancies in the electoral rolls and optimise the polling station location and area has begun in Adilabad Assembly constituency. This intensive revision of electoral rolls (IRER) envisages use of Geographic Information System to accurately give the address of the voters and the polling stations where they need to cast their votes.

Uploading data

A two member team consisting of a booth level officer and an operator of a tablet computer visit every household within their jurisdiction and carry out revision of the rolls. All the 1.64 lakh voters in 243 polling stations in the constituency will be geo-tagged using the tablet computer which will also facilitate immediate uploading of the data collected from the voters.

Among the objectives of the NREP exercise, being undertaken in select constituencies only, is to make corrections in the existing data in the electoral rolls, add all eligible voters and delete the names of those who have migrated or died. The new additions need to be physically present at the given address in order to make the entry.

The IRER will record only the address given by local bodies for the purpose for property tax collection. It will also determine the polling area of individual voters. A couple of days into the exercise, it is clear that the voters are cooperating with officials. Data uploading therefore is comparatively quick.

Network problems

“The only difficulty is the quality of network signal available at many places. We are facing problem wherever the signal is weak,” deputy tahsildar, Adilabad Rural mandal M. Madhukar said while supervising electoral roll revision work at Kachkanti village. There are six polling stations in the remote corners of the constituency where there is no cell tower and therefore no network. “We have asked for instructions with regard to Khandala, Khanapur, Lohara, Chichdhari, Tippa and Hathigutta polling stations where no service provider operates,” Mr. Madhukar added.