District Election Officer, Leh Saugat Biswas chaired a meeting with Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) Leh & Nubra and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) of Leh, Khaltse, Durbuk, Kharu, Nyoma, Saspol and Diskit; political representatives of District Congress Committee Leh, People Democratic Party Leh and Bahujan Samajwadi Party Leh and media persons to inform about the recently launched National Electoral Rolls Purification & Authentication Programme (NERPAP) in India.

DEO Biswas informed the meeting that this programme aims to create ‘an error-free voter identification system in India especially by removing duplications’ that was launched by the Election Commission of India on 3rd of March.
Biswas said that this programme will be reviewed periodically at all State and District levels wherein all the EROs, AEROs and BLOs will be involved.

Seeking cooperation from political parties by assigning Booth Level Agents, Biswas further said that engagement of Booth Level Volunteers will also prove instrumental in the completion this programme.

Talking about three prompt strategies that will be followed, he said that the Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) will be linked with the Aadhar number of the registered voter wherein BLOs will visit each household to collect data which then will be linked through the process. BLOs will also educate the electors about the facility to feed their respective EPIC and Aadhar numbers by themselves through SMS and other on-line services.

Secondly, under electoral purification, voters with multiple entries in the databases, under the voluntary disclosure scheme will be appealed to disclose voluntarily BLO/AERO/ERO and help evade the duplicity. Those who come forward voluntarily forward will be appreciated and the defaulters will have to face a penalty under Representation of People’s Act, informed Biswas.

Finally, correction in name, photos and others and normal regular addition and deletion will also be covered under this programme.

On enquiring about the need to opening up of a cell for correction of names in Ladakh for the people of this place, DEO Biswas gave assurance to the media persons that this matter will be examined as major components especially of corrections will be covered widely under this programme itself.