Haryana to use geofencing technology to enrol new voters

Pilot project in Panchkula; to be launched across state soon

CHANDIGARH: 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. ROHTAK: A 35-year-old liquor contractor was killed by three motorcycle-borne miscreants at his liquor shop in Assan village on Saturday morning. The deceased has been identified as Birbal, a resident of the same village.

Police said he was sitting in his liquor shop on Saturday morning when three men walked up to him and asked for beer. When he turned around to fetch the bottles, the miscreants entered the shop and opened indiscriminate fire at him. Sources said that six bullets were pumped into the victim’s body after which the accused fled the spot, firing shots in the air. The victim’s brother, who was sitting outside the shop, could do little to stop the armed men. But he was reportedly able to note down the number of the vehicle, which used by the accused, and provide it to the police. Police said they have registered a case of murder on the complaint submitted by Birbal’s brother. Prima facie, the police said, it seemed to be a case of old rivalry over the ownership of liquor shop contract. They said the brother of the deceased has filed a complaint against a youth of their village, identified as Rohtash, suspecting him to have hired shooters to commit the murder after he lost the contract of eight liquor shops to Birbal.

The accused also damaged the CCTV cameras installed in the shop.