New Delhi: The Election Commission of India's initiative for the first time at the central level for organising capacity-building programmes for the frontline election functionaries including the Booth Level Officers and Supervisors, is a game changer towards strengthening the democracy at the grassroots.
Such trainings being organised by the poll panel with the objective of providing better services to people aim to improve the quality of the electoral process.
The Booth Level Officers are the first interface of the Election Commission of India with the voters and have a vital role in ensuring correct and updated electoral rolls. The capacity building programme is aimed to benefit all the existing electors of the country, which is around 100 crore.
During the capacity building programme, they are being trained to ensure accurate filling of various forms including Form 6, 7 and 8. They are also familiarised with the provisions of first and second appeals against the final published electoral rolls.
They are being trained to carry out their function strictly as per the Representation of People Act 1950, 1951, Registration of Electors Rules 1960, Conduct of Election Rules, 1961 and the directions issued by the Election Commission of India from time to time.
Notably, the Election Commission of India's target is to train one lakh election functionaries at the central level in the next few years. So far it has trained over 3,000 election functionaries.
Currently, the two-day training programme for Booth Level Officers and Supervisors of Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh is underway at the India International Institute of Democracy and Election Management (IIIDEM) in the national capital.
NR Meena, a Booth Level Officer Supervisor from Rajasthan, pointing out the benefits of such training programmes, asserted that it is aimed at providing better facilities to the voters.
Expressing similar views, Ashwani Kumar, Boot Level Officer Supervisor from Chhattisgarh said, "We learnt the procedure on how a citizen can get his/her name enrolled in the electoral roll. What are the eligibility criteria for that.'
Sources in the Election Commission of India told ETV Bharat that the poll panel's endeavour is to provide better services to the electors by strengthening democracy at the grassroots through capacity-building programmes of the frontline election functionaries.
"The main objective is to make the frontline election functionaries aware of their roles and responsibilities as laid under the laws. Such trainings are aimed to train them with any kind of problems being faced by the voters," they said.
The Election Commission of India sources also said the poll panel is likely to train around 10,000 frontline election functionaries this year at the central level.
