PUNE: The state election officials have so far completed 75% of the "geo-tagging of electoral rolls" works in the five assembly constituencies in the state selected as part of a pilot project.
The project has been initiated in Baramati in Pune district, Ralegaon in Yavatmal, Vandre West in Mumbai Suburban, Dindori in Nashik, Pathri in Parbhani district.
As a part of the exercise, enumerators visit households along with booth-level officers (BLOs) and enter data into a BLONet mobile app. According to election officials, geo-tagging will help in knowing that voters are within the boundaries of a polling station. So far, the authorities have completed 75% work of intensive revision of electoral rolls (IRER) in five assembly constituencies.
The "geo-tagging" of electoral rolls will also ensure that voters belonging to a single family are registered at the same polling station, officials added.
Monica Singh Thakur, the deputy election officer, told TOI that 75% work has been completed in Baramati constituency. "All 353 block-level officers are at work and data is being collected. Similarly, work is in full swing in other constituencies. After completion of the pilot project, the government will take a call on rolling out the project across the state,'' said the deputy election officer.
Earlier, voters belonging to a single family were often registered at different polling stations and some even had their surnames misspelt. This would often lead to chaos, resulting in low voter turnout. The officials felt that geo-tagging will check the problem of low voter turnout as all members of a family can head to the same polling station and cast their voters.
There are also plans of linking the Aadhaar number with the voting process. This will further rule out the possibility of bogus voters, said an official.
Pilot data, once collated, can be replicated across the entire state and a clean electoral roll will further ensure a good voter turnout, said election officials.
Nearly 4 lakh voters have been verified in five constituencies of the state. Once the process is completed, a draft will be released to the citizens and political parties and this can be checked and uploaded in the final voter tally.
