Date:13/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/13/stories/2008031354230400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Delimitation process completed in 20 districts: Vidyashankar

Staff Reporter

Final revised voters’ list for Bangalore on March 20

Bangalore: The final revised voters’ list for Bangalore will be published on March 20. The list for the rest of the State was prepared on March 10, according to M.N. Vidyashankar, Officer on Special Duty, State Election Commission, and Principal Secretary, Department of IT, BT and Science & Technology.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a meeting to announce new sponsors for the IT Department’s Computer Skills Proficiency Test (CSPT), Mr. Vidyashankar said the carving out of new constituencies as per the report of the Delimitation Commission has been completed for 20 districts. the authorities will arrive at a time-frame to complete the delimitation process in the remaining nine districts in three days, he said.

“It will not be possible to provide voters’ photo ID cards to all by May, or even by November,” Mr. Vidyashankar said. The application of IT tools will go a long way in the speedy processing of electoral rolls, he added.

CSPT, an initiative of the Department of IT BT and ST launched in October 2007 to help placement of non-engineering graduates in the industry will get considerably cheaper for the first 10,000 people who take the test in March, said Mr. Vidyashankar. From the estimated Rs. 600 that would have been charged for every test, the amount will now be reduced to Rs. 50, with the entry of two sponsors of the programme — Intel and AMD.

More corporate sponsors are now being sought to subsidise the test for the targeted 1 lakh candidates who are expected to sit for the test by year end, he added.

CSPT, with a focus on tier-II and tier-III cities and towns, aims at creating a State-wide standard for computer skills, and offers a government-endorsed certificate along with a score card to indicate the level of skill and employability of the candidate.

CSPT will work from two zones, the Karnataka South (Bangalore Rural, Mysore and Mangalore) and Karnataka North (Gulbarga, Hubli-Dharwad and Belgaum).