Himachal to use EVMs for panchayat, urban body polls

Himachal Pradesh will go into the election mode, once again, before the end of the year to complete the process for electing new panchayat and urban local bodies.

The state Election Commissioner Dev Swaroop told media persons the commission has already set in motion the process for verification of the voters’ list ahead of the polls and electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be used for the first time in the polls.

“The announcement of the election schedule could be made any time after the commission gets reports on completion of the electoral rolls. The process for verification of the rolls have already started from today and would be completed by September 20,” he informed.

All block development officers (BDOs) have been instructed to appoint teams for house-to-house verifications. The team will include panchayat secretary of sahayak, patwari, school teachers and anganwadi workers. The teams will be handed over working copies of the existing rolls generated from the data of the election commission.


To make the data foolproof and eliminate duplications, the commission has devised a form to be filled in by head of the family for authentication of the family voters’ details. The commission has decided to take the help of state’s Information Technology department in the electoral rolls.

All voters eligible on January 1, 2010, will be included in the voters list.

The elections will be held for nearly 3243 panchayats and 48 urban local bodies. The election process, said Swaroop, will be completed by December 25.

He, however, refused to elaborate on the reservation for women but added that since the Act had been already passed a provision of 50 reservation have been made for the women. In all 27,453 representatives of the panchayats will be elected and 406 for the urban local bodies.

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