JOIN USBEST was a result of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Election Commission of India and Janaagraha on July 23.
The then Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla said: “Bangalore has always been a problem, because it has the fastest moving population and electoral system is not able to catch up with these constant change in address.”
The project envisages achieving a near 100 cent accuracy in urban electoral rolls by rectifying errors and omissions.
BEST will initially be implemented on a pilot basis in the Shanthi Nagar Assembly Constituency between September and December, involving two stake holders of the electoral process - ECI and the citizens.
The campaign will be rolled out across the seven wards of Shanthi Nagar constituency in a phased manner.
It seeks to involve citizen volunteers, also called ‘Area Voter Mitras’, in all the wards and bring about changes for a citizen-friendly voter registration process. The potential AVM recruits will be mobilised by the field officers of Janaagraha. These AVMs will be the guide in their residential area on voter registration issue.
The project is being regularly reviewed by a committee chaired by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka and representatives from Janaagraha and the CEO office.
“The total population per ward in Shanthi Nagar is approximately 35,000 with about 186 polling booths in the constituency. We are looking at mobilising 1,000 AVMs to achieve our target in these four months,” said Swati Ramanathan, Co-founder of Janaagraha.