Special drive from July 1 to enroll young Delhi voters

New Delhi: A special month-long drive to enroll young voters of Delhi, particularly those in the age group of 18-19 years, will be conducted by the Election Commission starting July 1, seeking to bridge the shortfall in the number of such electors.

The objective of the drive is enrolment of eligible young electors, particularly in 18-19 years age group (extendable up to 21 years of age) as on January 1, 2017.

Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct the door-to-door visit to households for initiating registration of such electors," a senior official at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said today.

The number of electors falling in 18-19 years age group, who are registered in the electoral roll of Delhi, is 1,10,639 as on the date of the final publication of electoral roll i.e. January 10, 2017.

Presently, there are 1,75,197 electors of 18-19 years age group, registered in the electoral roll of Delhi. The shortfall in this category of electors is still very high considering that more than six lakh people are projected of this age group as per the 2011 Census," according to the CEO's office.

The senior official further said that special camps would be organized on July 9 and July 23 at every polling station under the supervision of the respective District Election Officer/District Magistrate.

"During these camps, citizens can check their names in the existing electoral roll and also submit their Form-6 (for an inclusion of name) or Form-8 (for correction in existing details) at the polling station itself," he added.

Special camps would be organized at senior secondary schools on July 13-14 and on July 27-28 at colleges/ ITIs/polytechnic colleges for submission of Form-6 of left out electors of 18-21 years age group.

The official said during this drive, another focus area would be "removal of name of expired electors".

"Any family member/relative can file Form-7 along with a copy of death certificate for deletion of name of the deceased elector," he said.

"Disposal of forms will be done within a period of 30 days from the receipt of forms. Disposal of Form-7 (other than death cases), Form-8 and Form-8A received during the period of the special drive will be done only after the drive is over," he added.

The CEO's office said that as additional services to voters and citizens, a mobile application developed by the Election Commission can be downloaded from the EC website.

"A user can fill a form, track its status, make electoral search, etc, through this mobile app," it said.