Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam has approached the Election Commission seeking changes to its ECINet software, arguing that Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) should have greater discretion while dealing with cases during the notice phase of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The move would particularly help senior citizens, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups avoid unnecessary inconvenience. Chockalingam has also sought greater flexibility in the documents that voters can submit. The Maharashtra CEO has also sought authority for EROs to dispose of certain logical discrepancy cases themselves when they are satisfied with the evidence, instead of sending supporting documents to the District Election Officer for verification. The request is based on the statutory responsibility assigned to EROs for electoral rolls. Under the law, an ERO is responsible for an Assembly constituency and, if satisfied that a person is eligible, can direct that the person’s name be included in the roll. He has also sought written instructions and FAQs covering the notice, document submission, hearing and disposal procedures, saying EROs have several queries and that oral instructions from the Election Commission or CEO are insufficient.
The communication, sent to the Election Commission on September 24, sought four changes to the software.
The requests largely concern situations in which EROs are required to take decisions under election law but do not currently have corresponding options available to them on the digital platform, according to a report by the Indian Express Newspaper. Chockalingam has sought an additional option, “Exempted from Hearing” for cases where the elector has submitted valid and satisfactory documents.
The demands echo concerns raised earlier by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi over the functioning of ECINet and the role of field-level election officials.
