Jharkhand Electoral Roll Improvement: Notional House Numbers Assigned to Boost Voter Accuracy

Ranchi: Jharkhand chief electoral officer (CEO) K Ravi Kumar has asked all officers concerned to ensure assigning notional numbers to all houses which do not have any assigned by the local govt machinery or the panchayat.Stressing that due to improper identification of house numbers, voters from the same family may have a break in the electoral roll, Kumar further said not assigning a house number might also have resulted in discontinuous serial numbers in the same polling station or voters from the same family may have different house numbers printed on their electoral photo identity card (EPIC).“To eliminate such situations, issuing notional numbers is extremely necessary,” he told TOI on Saturday.At present, rationalisation of polling stations is going on in the state, and as part of the process, geo-fencing of polling stations and their polling areas is also being done. During this process, notional numbers will be issued to new houses or those houses that do not have a house number.“Along with this, the officers concerned should ensure that not more than 1,200 voters are listed in one polling station while carrying out the rationalisation work. This process will facilitate the upcoming intensive revision (special intensive revision or SIR) of voter lists,” the CEO said.He further said, “Assigning house numbers will also help BLOs of respective polling stations to easily reach out to their voters.”Under the effort, stickers are to be pasted on houses by the BLOs so that voters can contact them.“These stickers will contain the name of the BLO of the respective polling station area, assembly constituency, part number, house number/notional house number, and the BLO’s phone number. This will help voters establish contact with their BLOs,” he said.