Ahmedullah Thakuria, Election Officer, Gossaigaon in a press meet organized here at the conference hall of SDO-Civil office, Gossaigaon briefed about the activities for Summary Revision with effect from 1st January 2023 as qualifying dates and also sensitize the voters about modifications in Election rules and roll out of new forms. In the press meeting Ahmedullah Thakuria, Election Officer, Gossaigaon said that instead of one, four qualifying dates have been framed by the Election Commission of India for the greater interest of voters so that no voters have to wait for a long time to enroll themselves in voter list and a new form (Form6B) is being rolled out from 1st August for voluntary linkage of Voter ID with Aadhar number. He said that the voters can file claims and objections from 9th November to 8 December and during that time a unique awareness and SVEEP activities will be carried out to dispose of their problems by the Gossaigaon Election Office. As briefed by the Election Officer, Gossaigaon Ahmedullah Thakuria youths of the country will get an opportunity to become part of the voter list by Election Commission’s new user-friendly forms which will be available from 1st August, 2022. He said that applicants becoming eligible for registration with 1″ January as the qualifying date with subsequent qualifying dates for the year can submit their claims in Form-6 in advance, beginning from the date of draft publication of the electoral roll. It may be recalled that on the recommendations of ECI, the Ministry of Law & Justice recently amended the RP Act to provide for four qualifying dates as 1″ January, 1″ April, 1 July, and 1″ October as eligible for youngsters to register in electoral rolls as opposed to the earlier single qualifying date of 1″ January only. Subsequently, any citizen attaining the age of 18 years by April 1, July 1, and October 1 of 2023 can also submit the application form in advance for registration as a voter from the date of draft publication of the electoral roll. For the convenience of voters, modifications have been done in forms 6,7,8 and 6B. In the press meet it is also discussed in detail that the newly introduced Form 6B is seeding of Aadhar numbers or other documents with the electoral rolls to make the electoral roll more authentic. The existing electors may link their Aadhar number through Form 6B and state that submission of Aadhar number is purely voluntary and those who do not possess the Aadhar due to a shortage of documents can submit other documents like MGNREGA job card, passbook issued by bank/post office, pan card, passport, etc. In a bid to carry out the entire process smoothly a training session will be carried out at Habrubil Community Hall on 1 August where BLOS, AERO, ERO, Field Supervisor etc. will be imparted training by the technical person about the updated apps of ECs so that they can work in a hassle-free manner with the apps like- NVSP, VHA, Garuda etc. On the other hand a launch event of linking Aadhar with Voter ID will also be carried out in the presence of local intellectuals and all political parties by the Gossaigaon Election Officer. From 4th August keeping at par with the Annual Summary Revision, polling stations having more than 1500 electors, shall be rationalized as per the given schedule and before the draft publication of electoral rolls in accordance with the instructions framed by the EC in the manual on Polling Station, 2020. A new polling Station shall be created only after rationalizing the sections to the adjacent Polling Stations to the possible extent, adds Ahmedullah Thakuria, Election Officer, Gossaigaon.
