National Electoral Roll Purification 2016 launched

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has launched the National Electoral Roll Purification (NERP) programme across the country to correct errors in electoral rolls and enrolment of all eligible citizens, among other things.

Highlights:

• NREP 2016 will ensure single electoral register entry for every eligible elector with unique Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number, removal of all absent, shifted or dead electors’ entries and repeat entries.
• Photo electoral rolls will be updated with good quality images of every elector confirming to ECI standards, and linking electors with ECI by obtaining their contact details.
• Geographic Information System (GIS) would be used to standardise sections, polling station boundaries and locations.
• Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct door-to-door field verification of entries apart from collecting electors’ information on contact details, family members, including non-enrolled and persons who would become eligible on January 1, 2017. The collected details would be uploaded on the NERP portal for further processing and action by Electoral Registration Officers (EROs).
• To provide easy access to citizens and electors for enhanced electoral rolls related services, voluntary collection of mobile number/e-mail ids and details of family members will be done under NERP 2016. The Commission has also ordered that such information, under no circumstances, should be put in public domain or shared with any authority.
• Provision has been made to provide the information electronically on National Voters Service Portal (NVSP). Poor quality and black and white images are proposed to be replaced by the District Election Officers (DEOs) through deployment of sufficient number of digital cameras.
• To ensure transparency and meaningful involvement and active participation of citizens of the area, the Commission has decided that the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) would prepare part wise list of names proposed to be removed from the electoral roll on account of absence, shifted, dead and repeat entries to be displayed in the office for a period of at least seven days from the date of pasting of the list.