Special enrolment drive to get college students on voters’ list
Election Commission of India (ECI) has decided to undertake a special enrolment drive for firsttime voters. The Commission will focus on college students in the age group 18 to 19 years. The drive will be held between July 1-31.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Anil Valvi, Joint Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), ECI, said only 33.70% of the college youth from the age group 18 to 19 years have registered as voters. He said out of the 35.81 lakh population in this age group only 12.07 lakh youth have registered as voters till now, the remaining will have to be enrolled for which they are making the effort to reach out.
He said, “This special enrolment drive will focus on the age bracket of 18 to 21 years of collegegoing youth. We wish to get them enrolled in the monthlong drive in the month of July. Besides this drive, a special campaign will be launched on two days: July 8 (second Saturday) and July 22(fourth Saturday).”
He added, “Apart from these two days, special camps will also be held in government and private educational institutions, on two other days. During the special drive, the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will make house-to-house visits and collect Form 6 (voter registration form) especially from those in this age group. We are taking every effort to reach out to them.”
Valvi further said that college principals have been appointed nodal officers. He added that during the admission process in colleges students bring along documents like Aadhar Card, birth certificates besides marksheets for submission.