CHANDIGARH, May 22: Punjab Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C informed that the Election Commission of India ( ECI )  has introduced many new initiatives. The introduction of these initiatives is new. This was achieved under the dynamic leadership of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the last three months. Gyanesh Kumar appointed as Chief Election Commissioner of India on 19th February 2025.

“ECI Enhances Voter Access, Holds Over 4,700 All-Party Meetings Nationwide”

Sibin C said that to facilitate electors, the ECI has restricted the maximum number of voters at a polling station to 1200. Similarly, officials will set up additional polling booths in high-rises and colonies. For electoral roll updation, they will directly obtain death registration data from the RGI (Registrar General of India) database and update it after verification. He said that authorities will make voter information slips more elector-friendly. They will now display the voter’s serial number and part number more prominently. He further said that from February to till date, Pan-India All-Party meetings conducted at the CEO/DEO/ERO level. Total 4,719 meetings held (CEO-40/ DEOs-800/EROs-3879) and over 28,000 representatives of political parties participated in these meetings.  Election Commission also held meetings with heads of National & State political parties, i.e. AAP/BJP/BSP/CPI(M)/NPP.  ECI also held capacity building programmes for Booth Level Agents of Political Parties at IIIDEM (Bihar, Tamilnadu & Puducherry).

New Initiatives ; ECI Launches ECINET Dashboard to Streamline Electoral Services for 28 Stakeholders”

Sibin said that ECI introduced the new Integrated Dashboard – ECINET. Its aim is to provide all services for all stakeholders at a single point. It acts as a single app to replace over 40 apps and websites.  Duplicate EPIC Number issue also resolved. He informed that 28 stakeholders were identified in the entire process of preparing electoral rolls and conducting elections. These stakeholders include electors, election officials, political parties, candidates, and others. This identification is based on the Representation of the People Act 1950, 1951. It also considers the Registration of Electors Rules 1960, Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, and the instructions issued by the ECI from time to time. The team is preparing training presentations for each of these stakeholders. They are based on the Acts, Rules, and Instructions of the Commission. In a unique initiative, ECI announced to issue Standard Photo ID Card for BLOs. “IIIDEM has already trained more than 3,000 Booth Level Supervisors and will train over 1 lakh BLO Supervisors in the next few years.” ECI also conducted orientation programme for SMNOs & MNOs from CEO offices of all 36 States/UTs at IIIDEM and training conducted for Police Officers from Bihar at IIIDEM. ECI has also Implemented Biometric Attendance, operationalisation and roll out of E-Office and doing regular meetings with CEOs.