MANGEMENT OF ELECTORAL ROLLS East Khasi Hills District Meghalaya

Nomination for : Management of Electoral Rolls Name of the Officer : Shri SANJAY GOYAL, IAS Designation/Post during the period of consideration : Deputy Commissioner & District Election Officer, East Khasi Hills District Shillong 793001 Meghalaya

Summary of achievement/work(key features and the outcomes/effectiveness Management of error free Photo Electoral Rolls of East Khasi Hills District with 100% EPIC coverage with high fidelity for 17 Assembly Segments of 1-Shillong Parliamentary Constituency

For the entire state of Meghalaya, the total number of voters enrolled as on 22nd March, 2014 was 15,67,241 out of total projected census population of 16,07,793 in the age cohort of 18 years and above. This gives a percentage of registered voters vs. eligible voters at 97.47 % with total 7,77,639 male voters and 7,89,602 female voters enrolled with reference to 01-01-2014 as the qualifying date.

For East Khasi Hills District, the total voters enrolled in all the 17(seventeen) Assembly Constituencies as on 22nd March 2014, which was the last day of filing of nomination was 4,48,767 out of projected population of 8,92,892 with 100% EPIC coverage and error free photo electoral roll prepared and managed in-house with aggregate EP ratio of 503 (50.25%). The percentage of registered voters vs. eligible voters at 98.51 % with total enrolled 4,48,767 voters to 4,55,549 projected census population as of 2014.

The key features of the photo electoral rolls were as follows- 100% in-house development process without outsourcing it to any expert agency. The purity of the Electoral Roll was maintained with no complaints of misuse or manipulation of the Electoral Rolls. No third party involvement in management of Electoral Rolls. 100% EPIC coverage since 2008 Assembly Elections. Effective Complaints & Grievances Redressal Mechanism

Extremely fine quality of electoral roll printed in- house IV. On-line receipt of Claims & Objections and speedy disposal Error free entry of voters with regard to House number, Name, Date of birth, Photographs, gender (sex), fathers/mothers/husband’s name etc through proper synchronization of maximum tables and collating of data. Extremely fine quality of electoral roll printed in- house Description of Achievement/work-use plain language to describe the achievement/work of the nominee

1. In House Management of Electoral Rolls: The preparation and management of the electoral rolls in the district of East Khasi Hills is completely done in house. No private agencies are engaged at all Entire System of Management of Electoral Rolls is computerized with dedicated computers Each District and Sub-Division in the state have Technical Personnel dedicated only for the purpose of management of the Electoral Rolls. These are the Assistant System Engineers assisted by Data Entry Operators.

Hardware Aspects All election offices in the state have exclusive computer cell set up for operating the computerization of election works. The number of computers (SERVERS and CLIENTS) allotted to individual office is based on (i) the number of Assembly Constituencies each office serves and (ii) Electors.   To run the Photo Electoral Rolls Software, mid Range Type of Server and Client computers are used to achieve good system throughput and relatively high storage capacity. To ensure purity of the system, these are dedicated computers used only for the purpose of election and database management of electoral rolls.

Software Aspects Database: Software developed by National Informatics Centre (NIC), Shillong, in accordance with the one prescribed by the ECI. Two more additional fields - (i) Contact Number, (ii) E-mail ID, has been added to the database mainly for communication purpose with the electors like sending them SMSs for the purpose of SVEEP. Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) Software: The software process of one-to-one linking between individual electoral database information and its scanned image has been done by using the EPIC standard software, developed by the National Informatics Centre, Shillong, in compliance with the prescribed ECI’s software technical specifications for automated / self generation of each DISTINCT EPIC No. for individual elector.

c. Photo Rolls Software: This software is also developed by the National Informatics Center (NIC), Shillong using ORACLE 10g as Back-End, Visual Basic as Front-End and Crystal Report as Report handler tool. Capturing Of Images Into Oracle Database: The first task of the software is to capture the images (.JPG files) from the appropriate software hierarchy hard disk location as stored by the aforesaid EPIC software into ORCALE 10g database. Capturing of AC & PARTS MAPs into Oracle Database: The corresponding maps of individual Constituencies & PART numbers captured into the ORACLE database in the format of .JPG files.

d. Photo Rolls Report: The development of the Photo Rolls Reports has been the most difficult task, as these reports required the maximum number of ELECTORAL and EPIC tables to be synchronized for molding into a compatible ECI’s prescribed PHOTO ROLLS format, i.e., 3-Electors per Row, 30-Electors per Page with Image size of width =1.5 cms and height=2.0 cms and other parameters. e. Photo Rolls Checklist Reports: A standard Checklist Photo Rolls has been developed by National Informatics Center (NIC), Shillong using ORACLE 10g as Back-End, Visual Basic as Front-End and Crystal Report as Report handler tool. The aim of having this application is to utilize its reports as preliminary correction tools for photo electoral rolls with regard to the elector’s individual electoral and image correctness information. f. Image Record Keeping- To prevent misplace/loss of Image captured appropriate archival methods with multiple and secure backups have been devised. Maintenance of Registers and token system containing individual elector’s information and images for reference is properly docketed. Register books and tokens are kept in safe custody.

Asstt. System Engineer working on Oracle Database and Data entry operators working on printing of Electoral Rolls at Election Computer Cell

Effective receipt and disposal of Claims & Objections: Goal is for maximum coverage with minimum delay and error Physical Receipt of claims and objections in the office of the District Election Officer, Sub-Divisional Officer (Election) and Block Headquarters All Additional Deputy Commissioners/Extra Assistant Commissioners including Block Development Officers have been designated as EROs and AEROs to conduct hearing Online system of Receipt of Claims (Form 6, 7, 8, 8A) through the Meghalaya Online Citizen Services Portal SVEEP and Special Enrolment Campaign

Preparation of EPIC/Inclusion in Electoral Roll A. Minimum Delay in Hearing Claims and Objection Day 1 Receipt of Claims/Objections by ERO/AERO (Hearing process and disposal of claims by ERO/AERO) Day 2 Preparation of EPIC/Inclusion in Electoral Roll Day 3 Issue EPIC to the voter

B. Online Submission of Claims and Objections: The CEO Meghalaya has introduced the system of online filing of claims and objections for all the assembly constituencies in the state through the Meghalaya Online Citizen Services Portal. The District Election Office, East Khasi Hills District receives the maximum number of forms from the online system of submission of claims and objections. In the year 2013-14 a total of 1645 forms were received through online system of which hearing was conducted and forms disposed off accordingly. Table-1: Online claims/objections received online (2013-14) Online claims/objections Form6 Form7 Form8 Form8A Total received East Khasi Hills 1240 159 183 63 1645

C. Receipts of Claims & Objections during Summary Revision People standing in a queue awaiting their turns for hearing during the Summary Revision AERO conducting hearing at the Polling Station during the Summary Revision

D. Special efforts to cross verify the electoral data: In the last summary revision conducted in the district of East Khasi Hills, special efforts were made by the office of the District Election Officer to cross verify the Absentee/Shifted/Dead or Deleted voters. All BLOs were sent door to door for verification and local communities and Headmen were involved. This exercise was conducted for a period of over 20 (twenty) days and error free supplementary electoral roll was produced for the last general Lok Sabha Election 2014.

E. Special Enrollment Campaign: In compliance with the directive of the ECI a special enrollment campaign was conducted from the 10th March 2014 to 15th March 2014 in all the 725 polling stations by 725 Booth Level Officers (BLOs). Election Awareness Campaign through Democracy Van Lighting of Diengkum (Hot air balloon) during NVD 2014

District Election Officer Shri. Sanjay Goyal giving awards on NVD 2014 State SVEEP Icon Shillong Chamber Choir performing to woo voters for maximum enrollment District Election Officer Shri. Sanjay Goyal giving awards on NVD 2014

Claimants during special enrollment campaign

F. Outcomes: In-House Management of Electoral Rolls System has lead to error free rolls and 100% EPIC Coverage Coverage of 98.51 % (percentage of registered voters Vrs. eligible voters with total enrolled 4,48,767 voters to 4,55,549 projected census population as of 2014) Despite the East Khasi Hills having 17 – Assembly Segments (Largest in a single district in Meghalaya) and having the district with the maximum population in the state including elector population number of complaints is considerably less and mostly in the form of correction

Table: Age Cohort analysis District Name : East Khasi Hills Year of Revision : 2013 Total District Population in numbers (projected upto the Year 2013) 'X' 869950 District Population of 18+ only in numbers (projected upto Year 2013) 'Y' 443869 Age Cohort Projected Census Population in age cohort (Projected upto the Year 2013) %age of (2) to 'X' i.e. total Population as per census Electors as on w.r.t. 1.1.2013 as qualifying date %age of (4) to 'X' i.e. total population as per voter roll %age of (4) to (2) i.e. registered voters vs eligible voters 1 2 3 4 5 6 18-19 29015 3.34 19213 2.21 66.22 20-29 145105 16.68 128750 14.80 88.73 30-39 114240 13.13 113625 13.06 99.46 40-49 74234 8.53 77254 8.88 104.07 50-59 40855 4.70 46229 5.31 113.15 60-69 25226 2.90 24504 2.82 97.14 70-79 10891 1.25 11607 1.33 106.57 80+ 4303 0.49 3530 0.41 82.04 District Total 51.02 424712 48.82 95.68

District Name : East Khasi Hills Year of Revision : 2014 Total District Population in numbers (projected upto the Year 2014) 'X' 8,92,892 District Population of 18+ only in numbers (projected upto Year 2014) 'Y' 4,55,549 Age Cohort Projected Census Population in age cohort (Projected upto the Year 2014) %age of (2) to 'X' i.e. total Population as per census Electors as on (Last date of filing Nomination 22.03.2014) w.r.t. 1.1.2014 as qualifying date %age of (4) to 'X' i.e. total population as per voter roll %age of (4) to (2) i.e. registered voters vs eligible voters 1 2 3 4 5 6 18-19 29777 3.33 21110 2.36 70.89 20-29 148932 16.68 136394 15.28 91.58 30-39 117240 13.13 119495 13.38 101.92 40-49 76181 8.53 80741 9.04 105.99 50-59 41929 4.70 48351 5.42 115.32 60-69 25891 2.90 26103 2.92 100.82 70-79 11180 1.25 12461 1.40 111.46 80+ 4419 0.49 4112 0.46 93.05 District Total 455549 51.02 448767 50.26 98.51

From the above Age cohort it is clear that there is a marked improvement over the EP ratio of 488 recorded (as on 15th, Jan, 2013) during the continuous updation. As on the last date of filing nomination which was 22nd March, 2014 the district recorded an EP ratio of about 503 and thus meeting the projected target by about 98.5%. This could be attributed to extensive campaign to register First Time Voters.

Table-: Gender Ratio analysis of enrolled voters of East Khasi Hills \ Table-: Gender Ratio analysis of enrolled voters of East Khasi Hills District Men Women Total voters Gender Ratio 215939 232828 448767 1078 (as on 22 March, 2014) Electors Population projected 200742 211782 412524 1055 as per projected electorate of East Khasi Hills

Online Registration of Complaints III. Effective Complaints & Grievances Redressal Mechanism: For the effective disposal of complaints and to ensure a robust grievance redressal system, the office of the District Election Officer has created different mechanisms for registration of complaints including Toll free phone number, managed by an Operator which is housed in the DEO Office Online Registration of Complaints Physical Receipt of Complaints through Form 8 etc in ERO/AERO Office Public Facilitation Centre

Table-: Status of complaints received during 2013-14 (Lok Sabha-2014) Online 1950 Toll free Form-8 Disposed Pending disposal Remarks Time taken 190 28 104 58 - 100% disposal of complaints Average time taken is one week The percentage of complaints received is only a mere 0.8 % out of the total no. of 22808 forms received, which shows that the Electoral Roll is free from error and duplicates

V. Summary of the report of the Commissioner of Division (Electoral Roll Observer): Guidelines of the ECI regarding summary revision and management of electoral roll is meticulously followed without compromise. It also indicates that the proactive involvement of the District Election Officer in the SVEEP-II, Summary revision, Special Enrollment Campaign and in preparation and management of electoral roll have resulted in the 100% coverage of error free EPIC in East Khasi Hills district with 100% image coverage in the electoral roll and the number of complaints received is negligible besides having a prompt disposal of complaints and grievances mechanism in the district.

Remarks by E-Roll Observer Sl No Key Questions Topics Remarks by E-Roll Observer 1 Status of E-Roll preparation Electoral Roll Completed on time, published on 15-01-2014 2 Whether de-duplication has done using computer software? -do- Yes, De-duplication done 3 Whether proper records pertaining to e-roll revision & continuous updation maintained in easy retrievable manner? Records maintained and indexed properly for easy retrievable and backed up in CD Rom 4 What is the EPIC coverage? EPIC 100% coverage in the district 5 Whether preparatory activities done by vendor finalization, contract signing, orientation of staff done? Done in house. No vendor engaged 6 Whether the EPIC software prepared by vendor and is tested? Software provided by the CEO used

Remarks by E-Roll Observer Sl No Key Questions Topics Remarks by E-Roll Observer 7 What is the image availability in the database? Photo E-roll 100% Photo available I the database 8 Whether arrangement for verification of working sheets for BLOs done? -do- BLOs report to the EROs concerned 9 Do the e-roll of Poling Stations have sections for each identifiable locality? Reorganization of PS Yes 10 Whether new maps prepared for delimited constituencies? Delimitation of ACs Yes, well distinguishable maps prepared 11 Whether any issues/complaints regarding delimitation? No complaints till date

Laser show urging voters to cast their votes in GE-2014 A Drone for dropping Election Pamphlets emphasizing importance of enrolling into E Rolls. Laser show urging voters to cast their votes in GE-2014

Coverage in the Newspapers

for Maximum Voter Enrollment & turnout during GE 2014 Extensive Media Coverage through Print and Electronic media for Maximum Voter Enrollment & turnout during GE 2014

VIII. Conclusion/Suggestion: Preparation of Marked Copies of E Roll: As the marking of the Electoral Roll has to be done manually, it is not only time consuming but prone to error as it is done very close to the date of poll. Thus, one of the challenges is to prepare an electoral roll free of errors that may arise due to mistakes in marking the electoral roll by the enumerators. To overcome this problem the district had developed an in-house software for the same whereby the marked copies were printed with EDC/PB marked in watermark as was done in case of ASD Voters. This required capturing of EPIC number in the EDC/PB application form instead of just the part no and serial no. only and then linking the entire issue of EDC certificate through the system generated copies and then ultimately linking it to the Electoral database used for the elections. However these copies were not used in the elections because of the possible legal issues involved as well as the political parties were not briefed on the issue.

Sample Photo Electoral Rolls of East Khasi Hills District

Sample of the GIS Electoral Map of a Polling Station

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