Speed Post News Network
New Delhi :A two- day Chief Electoral Officers’ Conference of all states and Union Territories commenced in New Delhi on August 18, 2017. It was inaugurated by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India A K Joti and O P Rawat, Election Commissioner of India (ECI).
Addressing the Chief Electoral Officers of the states and Union Territories, CEC Joti stressed on the need of providing e-services to stakeholders and emphasised on the requirement of developing e-Payment gateways for various election services of Election commission of India. He underlined the need for extensive training programmes on VVPAT as ECI has decided to conduct all future elections using VVPAT along with EVMs. The CEC also stated that Systematic Voter Education and Electoral participation (SVEEP) be developed as core area of election management, according to a PIB release.
Election Commissioner of India Rawat invoked all CEOs to avail the opportunity to share the experiences and good practices of each other and learn election management related issues from senior practitioners. He stated that all electoral practitioners must work together to reach the higher scale on electoral integrity to further strengthen Indian democracy.
Umesh Sinha and Vijay Dev, Senior Deputy Election Commissioners, Sandeep Saxena and Sudeep Jain, Deputy Election Commissioners, Dilip Sharma and D Ojha, Director Generals, along with other senior officers of the commission also participated at the conference by making presentations on pivotal issues like EVMs & VVPATs, Electoral Registration Officers’ Net, Electoral Roll, Systematic Voter Education and Electoral participation (SVEEP), Expenditure Monitoring, Social Media, Paid News and other issues.
The event has been organised by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to review performance as well as to explore new initiatives and improve the election management and voter experience.