PUDUCHERRY: The voters' strength in Puducherry declined by 14,160 voters, compared to January 5, 2022, in the draft roll published on Wednesday.
The electorate stood at 9.9 lakh as compared to last time's 10.1 lakh voters. "While 5,686 voters were included, 19,846 voters were deleted from the rolls," said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) P Jawahar at a press conference on Wednesday.
The number of male voters declined from 4.7 lakh to 4.6 lakh; female voters from 5.3 lakh to 5.2 lakh and transpersons increased from 120 votes to 137. Collectors of Puducherry and Karaikal, and RAOs in the Mahe and Yanam regions released the rolls.
Villianur constituency in Puducherry emerged as the largest constituency with 43,522 voters and Orleampet, with 24,234, was the smallest, said the CEO. Meanwhile, following rationalisation, additional polling stations have come up in Ouzhukarai, Kadirgamam, Indira Nagar, Thattanchavady, and Karaikal. The location of another 23 PS have been changed, while the names of four PS have been changed. To prevent duplicity of voters, 73% of electors ( 7.2 lakh) linked their Aadhar cards with electors' photo Identity Card, he added.
No need to wait a year for enrollment
Now, voters need not wait for a year for enrollment instead, it will be conducted in any quarter. The Election Commission of India introduced four qualifying dates in 2023-- namely January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 -- for fresh electors to enrol their names without waiting for the next revision period, said the CEO.
Meanwhile, a special focus is on the summary revision to intensify the coverage for 18 to 19 years, as there is a huge gap of 21,000 potential voters who are yet to register in the UT, said the CEO. As per the census population projection, out of 42,748 eligible youngsters, only 11,567 registered as voters, he said.
The head of institutions/principals of colleges were requested to arrange for special camps through their electoral literary clubs from Wednesday 9 to December 8 for enrolment of students as voters via the voter helplines, nvsp.in, and voter portal.eci.gov.in The nodal officers and the campus ambassadors shall facilitate online registration of students. EROs will depute BLOs, AEROs to coordinate with the nodal officers to ensure 100% registration of young electors. An AERO was deputed for each constituency to focus primarily on the young voters, said the CEO.
Voter Facilitation Centers (VFC) would be set up in the Office of EROs/AEROs which be manned by one designated officer for each constituency. BLOs/Designated officers will be deployed in the polling Stations from 9 am - 5 pm for special campaign days on November 19, 20, and December 3 and 4 to receive claims/objections on the Garuda App.