Photo Electoral Rolls in TN by Jan 2007: CEO

Madurai, Aug 17 (UNI) The draft photo electoral rolls for all the Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu will be released by January next, Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta said today.

Addressing mediapersons here, he said for constituencies where the photo electoral rolls had not been released, work was on at the check-list stage.

Three stages of check-lists would precede the publication of the draft rolls with photographs.

He said the Photo Electoral Rolls, a national project, had been completed 100 per cent in Kerala and Pondicherry, whereas it was progressing at different stages in other states and Union Territories.

Mr Gupta, along with Joint-Electoral Officer Senthil Kumar and other officials, carried out a door to door verification besides visiting designated centres where voters photographs were taken for inclusion in the rolls.

Mr Gupta said images of 110120 voters had been recorded out of the total electorate of 134913. The remaining were those who had shifted their residence.

He also ruled out any scope for the misuse of the photographs adding that the hard copy would be in the possession of the Commission.

He said photo rolls was the best available method to prevent impersonation and bogus voting and added that the permissible alternative documents for voting for those who have failed to enroll in the photo roll would be considered later.

The bypoll and the local body elections have no link and the schedule for both would be separate, he said in response to a query.

However, he parried a question about the timing of the by-election to the constituency, caused by the death of DMK member and former Minister P T R Palanivel Rajan.

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