Tamil Nadu - Chennai

CEO reviews delimitation procedures

Photo: V.Ganesan

Making scrutiny: Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta at a meeting in Chennai to review the procedures involved in the delimitation of constituencies, on Thursday. —

CHENNAI: Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta chaired a meeting of District Collectors and officials from north Tamil Nadu to review the procedures involved in the delimitation of constituencies, on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting, he said the procedures, including realignment of electoral rolls and table and field verification, would be completed by August.

He has been holding meetings to review the progress in reorganisation of polling stations following the delimitation and ensuring that the norms of Election Commission on setting up polling stations that include criteria such as electorate size, distance and state of structures are fulfilled.

“A marginal increase in the number of polling stations is likely,” Mr. Gupta said. New electoral rolls are likely to be published in the first week of September.

The database of the rolls has to be consolidated and centralised at the Chief Electoral Officer’s office and is likely to be completed in 10 days, a press release said.

Table verification, which would ensure that no area is left out or duplicated, would be conducted next. Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) would conduct field verification of entries by visiting houses to check for surplus or missing names. They would give acknowledgment to the household and paste a sticker on the door.

District Election Officers and Electoral Registration Officers are being trained in the methodology of field verification along with the meeting. Training has already been conducted in Tirunelveli, Madurai and Tiruchi. It would be held at Erode and Coimbatore on Friday. The District Election Officer would conduct training for Assistant Electoral Registration Officers and BLOs.

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