In yet another effort to ensure 100% enrollment of persons who turned 18-years-old, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Punjab Dr S Karuna Raju on Tuesday constituted a Three-Member Committee to identify new voters in the state.
CEO Dr Raju accompanied by Additional CEO Amandeep Kaur was chairing a meeting of various departments including Health, Education and Birth and Death Department at his office here. Director General School Education (DGSE) and Director Technical Education Pradeep Agrawal also attended the meeting.
The three-member committee is headed by SVEEP Coordinator Dr Navneet Walia while Superintendent Rakesh Khanna and Data Based Administrator Charanjit Singh are its members. Additional CEO Amandeep Kaur, who is also Electoral Roll Nodal Officer for state will be supervising the committee. CEO Dr Raju said that as departments including Education, Health, Technical Education, Medical Education, Skill Development, Labour Department, Nursing, Medical Universities and Social Welfare have all the data of young voters, these departments are active partners of this campaign. He directed these departments to provide data of people born between January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2003, so that they can be captured and Electors Photo Identification Card (EPIC) could be made.
He said that CBSE, ICSC and Open School departments are also being roped in and all out efforts are being made to collect all the data of new voters. He said that once all the data will be collected, it will be thoroughly screened and collated. “Our aim to form this committee is to capture maximum eligible young voters and bring them on Electoral Rolls so that they could exercise their franchise in forthcoming Punjab Assembly Elections 2022,” he said.
Dr Raju also directed the committee members to do maximum efforts to enroll maximum new voters. DGSE Pradeep Agrawal suggested that the data available with the Punjab Education Department and Technical Education will be of great importance for the identification of new voters. He assured to share all the data with the CEO Office at the earliest.
Meanwhile, Representatives from the Health Department also assured to provide all the information pertaining to births and deaths.
