Haryana to use geofencing technology to enrol new voters

Pilot project in Panchkula; to be launched across state soon

Haryana is likely to be the first in the country to use geo fencing technology to identify and enroll young voters.

Geo-fencing is a technology which draws a virtual line around a physical area so that a signal can be sent to a mobile electronic device, such as a phone, when it enters the virtually demarcated area.

The state election department prepared a computer algorithm to identify youths falling in the age group of 19 to 21 years.

The youths were identified on the basis of their data usage patterns and subsequently sent messages, in which they were asked whether they were eligible and interested in getting themselves enrolled in the voters’ list.

“Then our department officials personally approached them and facilitated their enrolment,” chief electoral officer Ankur Gupta told HT.

He added that the pilot project was undertaken in Panchkula.

Elaborating about the pilot project, Gupta said, “Last year around May, we were able to enroll only about 60 new voters using the traditional method of disseminating information (such as advertisements) in the district in 30 days.

But this year, with the help of geo-fencing, which was done for just 48 hours within an area of two kilometres, we got over 175 new voters.”

Gupta said that the state government had informed the election commission of India (ECI) about the project and is waiting for permission to launch it throughout the Haryana.

NEW APPLICATION TO KNOW INCLUSION/ EXCLUSION OF VOTER

Also, he said that the state election department would be first in the country to launch web-based application ERO-NET (electoral registration officer net) in the first week of July.

A technical team of the ECI, headed by IT director Kushal Pathak, had already imparted training to state officials.

The aim of the application is to enable electoral registration officers of the entire country to know inclusion or exclusion of any voter of any place, besides providing other information to citizens.

The ECI has developed ERONET for processing online and offline forms pertaining to registration as elector in the electoral roll (general and NRIs), deletion, correction and transposition of the entries respectively in the electoral roll.

Gupta further said that the state election department would be undertaking a month-long drive to enroll young voters from July 1 and undertake a variety of activities to effectively disseminate information and awareness for people to enroll as voters. There are estimated to be about 9 lakh new voters, he added.