EC takes up ‘vulnerability mapping’ of voters in U’ khand
Rajeev Khanna

Nainital, January 1
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a fresh set of instructions to the poll-bound states, including Uttarakhand, with regard to vulnerability mapping.

The ECI has defined vulnerability as the susceptibility of any voter or section of voters, whether or not living in a geographically identifiable area, to be fully prevented from or influenced upon in relation to the exercise of his right to vote in a free and fair manner, through intimidation or use of undue influence or force of any kind on him.

The ECI has stated, “The exercise of vulnerability mapping in the context of the Assembly elections is to be undertaken with the view to clearly identify, in advance, such voters or sections of voters who are likely to be “vulnerable”, the persons or other factors causing such vulnerability, and taking adequate corrective action well in advance on the basis of such identification.”

Defining the first step in the exercise to be taken by the sector officers, the ECI has directed that the sector officer must necessarily visit every locality or pocket in the area of every polling station in his area, hold widespread discussions with people there, gather information, and list the vulnerable households and families as well as the persons and factors causing such vulnerability.

The ECI has further directed, “He should further carefully fill the format ‘VM-SO’ for each such locality or pocket, preferably while he is touring the locality itself. All help, including vehicular support if needed, should be extended to the sector officer for the purpose. The sector officer must retain a copy of the filled formats VM-SO himself and submit all filled-in formats to the Returning Officer till January10.”

The returning officers have in turn been directed to submit the same to the District Election Officers (DEOs) who will then submit them to the Chief Election Officer (CEO) in the form of VM-DEO by January 14.

The ECI has further directed that the CEO will compile all the district formats in a book and mail this compilation to the Commission by January 16.

What it Means

The ECI has defined vulnerability as the susceptibility of any voter or section of voters, whether or not living in a geographically identifiable area, to be fully prevented from or influenced upon in relation to the exercise of his right to vote in a free and fair manner, through intimidation or use of undue influence or force of any kind on him.