Sanjeev Pargal
JAMMU, Feb 4: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has ordered enrollment of new voters for upcoming Lok Sabha elections till 10 days before the filing of nomination papers begin for a particular constituency. This has been done to ensure that no voter eligible to cast vote in the general elections (i.e. the youth who had attained the age of 18) are debarred from exercising their right to franchise.
Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Jammu and Kashmir Umang Narula told the Excelsior that the Election Commission has ordered continuous updation of electoral rolls even after publication of final rolls after summary revision on January 31.
“The youths, who had attained the age of 18, could enroll themselves as voters by filling Form No. 6 before the Election Returning Officer (ERO) or Assistant ERO even 10 days before the date of filing of nomination papers for the Lok Sabha elections,” he said, adding the new order would help the youth, who had turned 18 after the completion of summary revision of electoral rolls, to cast their vote in the general elections.
Earlier, the voters were not enrolled after completion of summary revision of electoral rolls.
During summary revision, Mr Narula said, the Election Commission has registered 3, 55,301 new voters in Jammu and Kashmir, which were highest ever in the past four years. He disclosed that out of 3.55 lakh new voters registered in the State during summary revision, 1, 48,480 were first time voters aged between 18 to 19 years.
In another first, the women had outnumbered males in new enrollment of voters in the summary revision. As against 1, 72,355 male voters, 1, 82,946 females have been enrolled as new voters, Mr Narula said.
The figures were contrary to total number of voters in Jammu and Kashmir, which was dominated by males.
Out of 69,33,118 electorates in Jammu and Kashmir for Parliament elections after the summary revision, 36,57,871 were male and 32,75,241 as females, the CEO said.
He added that prior to summary revision, the State had 67, 69,930 electorates. Nearly 1.9 lakh voters were deleted during the revision, which included dead, bogus and double registered voters.
Official sources said the newly developed D Duplication software was also run twice by the Electoral Registration Officers within Assembly constituencies to delete the voters, who had intentionally or unintentionally, registered themselves as voters at two places.
“Nearly 20,000 voters were deleted with the help of D Duplication software,” sources said, adding this process would help increase voter turnout.
After the summary revision, the total electorates of Kashmir stood at 35.96 lakh, Jammu 31.76 lakh and Ladakh 1.60 lakh.
As per 2011 census, Kashmir has total population of 68.88 lakh, Jammu 53.78 lakh and Ladakh 2.74 lakh, according to Director Census, Jammu and Kashmir, RK Bhagat. The total population of Jammu and Kashmir stood at 1.25 crores as per 2011 census as against 1.01 crores in 2001 census.
Kashmir had 54.76 lakh population in 2001, Jammu 44.3 lakh and Ladakh 2.36 lakh, Mr Bhagat said.
The population of Kashmir has increase by about 14 lakh, Jammu by about nine lakh and Ladakh by about 37,000.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel