Voter enrolment: Now, drop boxes at malls to submit forms

HYDERABAD: Chief electoral officer Rajat Kumar on Tuesday informed political parties that January 20 will be a special campaign day for voter enrolment in Telangana. Also, many drop boxes will be put up at the various malls.

He held a review meeting with representatives of all political parties on Tuesday.

In the districts, where the first phase of gram panchayat polls have been scheduled to be held on January 21, the special drive would be taken up on January 23.

“Booth-level officers will sit at their polling stations with a copy of the electoral rolls and forms from January 9-11 and January 23-25 between 4pm and 7pm. They will spend the special campaign day (January 20) at the polling stations,” he said.

“All ward offices of GHMC should have voter facilitation centres manned by an operator with a computer and internet connection. The operator should inform applicants of their electoral status on the roll and supply and collect the necessary forms. Similar, voter facilitation counters should be operationalised at all AERO, ERO, DC, tahsildar, RDO and ZC offices between January 8 and January 25,” he said.

“Drop boxes should be maintained at major malls to allow voters to submit filled-in forms between January 8 and January 25. EROs should ensure that they visit all undergraduate colleges in their respective assembly constituencies and urge eligible students to enrol themselves.

“Sufficient number of forms should be left with the principal. Drop boxes should be kept at these colleges too,” he added.