New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) Delhi Chief Electoral Officer Ranbir Singh on Tuesday directed all government departments to establish voter awareness forums (VAF's) to make their employees and families more familiar with electoral services, an official statement said.

Singh interacted with the heads of various departments in a virtual meeting to seek cooperation for creating awareness amongst their employees, families, and clients and consumers regarding voter registration and electoral services during the ongoing Special Summery Revision-2022.

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He directed all government departments to establish Voter Awareness Forums (VAF's), the statement added.

These departments include the Delhi Transport Corporation, Women and Child Development, NDMC, SDMC, EDMC, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Police and Delhi Cantonment Board, among others.

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According to Singh, establishing these forums will make their employees and their families more aware of voter verification and electoral services through engaging activities and hands-on experience.

Singh said the VAFs will operate in all government departments, non-governmental organisations and institutions, corporations, and other organisations.

All employees of the concerned office are eligible to join. The head of each organisation/departments/office will appoint one person to serve as the nodal officer. An officer with previous election experience would be given preference, it said.

For VAF resources, the nodal officer will work with the DEO/DM or the state CEO.

The essential feature of VAF's will be inculcating the electoral culture for informed, inclusive and ethical voting, appreciation of Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and voter-verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) and use of other technology in electoral processes, obliteration of voter apathy especially in urban area.

“Government departments can play a pivotal role in implementing in true spirit the mission of the ECI that no voter be left behind,”he said.

In view of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, he observed that online services would be quicker, more convenient, and safer.

According to the Election Commission of India's timetable, the Integrated Draft Electoral Roll 2022 was published on November 1, and claims and objections would be accepted from November 1 to November 30.

CEO Delhi asked all department heads to share links of special summery revision 2022 and social media handles of CEO, Delhi on their department's websites and also encourage their employees/citizens to follow @ceodelhioffice on Facebook,Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Senior officers of various departments assured the CEO that they will organise meetings and other activities for spreading voter awareness among employees of their departments.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)