KARGIL, OCTOBER 02, 2021: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) UT of J&K and Ladakh, Hirdesh Kumar today visited Kargil and chaired a meeting of officers to review the progress of pre-revision activities and readiness for Special Summary Revision of photo electoral roll-2022 in the UT of Ladakh.

The CEO chaired the meeting in presence of the Deputy Commissioner and CEO, LAHDC and District Election Officer Kargil Santosh Sukhadeve, Deputy District Electoral Officer Kargil Nargis Banoo, SDM Drass Anwar Ali Hussain, Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) and Booth Level Officers (BLOs) of Kargil in which they were trained about the use of Garuda mobile application developed by the Election Commission of India being used for the first time in the country.

CEO Hirdesh Kumar said all features of this app need to be closely understood by the officers and staff associated with the election work. He also directed AEROs and BLOs to be updated about the use of mobile application. He further said internet has become need of the hour for all employees, adding that once AEROs and BLOs are trained to use the application they will later train other officials about the same.

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Meanwhile, the AEROs and BLOs were also given training about how to use the application during the electoral process and its technical aspects.

Hirdesh Kumar asked all the BLOs to go for login in the Garuda application as soon as possible and directed the District Election Officer Kargil and the concerned officials to facilitate the BLOS and make sure they go for login of the application. In the meeting, technical issues related to login were also discussed threadbare. 

The CEO also directed the District Election Officer Kargil to set up a District Contact Centre for the purpose and make it functional 24×7. He also directed the officials that all voters who have crossed 18 years of age should be added in the voter list and their phone numbers should also be linked.

Hridesh Kumar also directed that all BLOs and AEROs to login on Garuda mobile application 100%. He also directed that all BLOs of Zanskar should come to Kargil for login purposes and get trained about the use of the mobile application as soon as possible.

In the meeting, Hirdesh Kumar also directed to ensure that the latitude and longitude of polling stations should be updated and all the concerned officials should ensure it. He also stressed that marking of persons with disabilities should be done on priority to make sure that they don’t face any kind of issue during the electoral process adding he also directed for release of funds for sanitization of people and new voters and asked the concerned officials to sensitize people.

The CEO directed the officials to update the photographs of all eligible voters and also update the details of citizens who have completed 18 years of age and are eligible for vote. He also directed that the missing photographs of voters should be updated along with phone numbers.

The CEO said officials can improve polling stations where ever needed adding that specially abled voters should be helped to transport them to polling stations. 

En route Kargil, the CEO also visited Kargil  War Memorial in Drass and paid tributes to the soldiers who laid down their lives in the 1999 Kargil War.