Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on Wednesday inaugurated the maiden training of booth level officers (BLOs) at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) here to familiarize them with their roles and responsibilities.
The two-day training programme is being attended by 109 BLOs from Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. Twenty-four Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) and 13 District Election Officers (DEOs) from Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu are also participating in the programme.
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Acknowledging the critical role of EROs and BLOs in error free updation of electoral rolls, the CEC said that the state governments should nominate SDM level or equivalent officers as EROs, who then should appoint BLOs giving due consideration to their seniority and who are ordinary resident of the polling station under their charge.
Kumar underscored that as per Article 326 of the Constitution and Section 20 of the Representation of People Act 1950, only citizens of India who are above 18 years of age and ordinarily resident in the constituency can be registered as electors.
The CEC reiterated his directions to all CEOs, DEOs, EROs for holding all-party meetings at their respective levels and resolve issues relating to their area of jurisdiction including correct updation of electoral rolls.
Cautioning that any complaint against ERO or BLO will be strictly acted upon, Kumar said that all BLOs should be courteous in their interactions with the electors during house-to-house verification for updation of electoral rolls.
He said that the Commission was, is and will always continue to stand with nearly 100 crore electors.
The training is planned to familiarise the BLOs with their roles and responsibilities as per the Representation of People Act 1950, the Registration of Elector Rules 1960 and instructions of the Commission issued from time to time and to equip them with requirements of filling relevant forms for an error free updation of electoral rolls. They will be familiarised with IT applications designed to support their work.
This unique capacity building program will continue in phases focussing first on poll-bound states, as per the statement issued by the ECI.
Over 1 lakh BLOs with an average of one BLO per 10 polling stations will be trained in such training programmes over the next few years. These well-trained BLOs will form a corps of Assembly Level Master Trainers (ALMTs) to strengthen the entire network of BLOs nationwide, who are the first and most important interface between the 100 crore electors and the Commission, it said.
