Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Now, voters’ registration at post offices

THINGS MADE EASY: GHMC Commissioner S.P. Singh exchanges files with Post Master General (BD&M) AP Circle Sandhya Rani after signing an MoU on Monday. Chief Post Master General Yashodhra Menon and Chief Electoral Officer I.V. Subba Rao are seen.

HYDERABAD: People living in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area aged above 18 years can now register themselves as voters at any of the 216 post offices located within the GHMC boundaries, covering 23 Assembly constituencies in Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy and Medak districts.

An exclusive counter manned by a clerk belonging to the Postal Services Department will function at each of these post offices from Tuesday to issue and receive the prescribed applications (Form No 6) and enlist the applicants as voters. The applicants will have to submit two photos.

The postman will visit the house of the applicant to verify the data mentioned in the application and Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) will be issued to him within a month.

The Election Commission on Monday converted all these 216 post offices into “voters’ registration offices” under a pilot project it launched for the first time in India’s election history to make the registration citizen-friendly.

To provide the necessary backing to the experiment, the State election authorities signed an MoU on Monday with GHMC in the presence of Chief Electoral Officer I. V. Subba Rao, Chief Postmaster General Yasodhara Menon, GHMC Commissioner S. P Singh, who is the district election officer. Also present were T. Dakshina Murthy, additional chief electoral officer and K. Sandhya Rani, postmaster-general.

Mr. Subba Rao later told The Hindu that if the experiment was successful, it would be extended to all the post offices in the State and all over the country.

The plan was to make post offices “permanent registration offices” as their location was known to all. The pilot scheme would be evaluated after 20 days and feedback sent to the EC.

He said e-registration of voters which was introduced recently, was successful, with 14,000 people applying so far.

The response at the 1,500 drop-boxes installed at cinema-houses, railway/bus stations, malls etc was also good. Under all these experiments, the response to the applicants would be ensured within a month.

Mr. Subba Rao said post offices could also be used for correcting and deleting names (Form No 8 and 7) and for shifting voting right to another place on transfer (Form No 8 A).

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