Only 24K overseas Indians registered as voters, 98% of them are from Kerala

Agencies
August 13, 2017

New Delhi, Aug 13: A little over 24,000 overseas Indians, who are entitled to cast their ballot in India, have registered themselves as voters.

Now, in a bid to attract more such Indian citizens living abroad to become voters here, the Election Commission has launched a portal which allows them to register online.

The portal also has a long list of frequently asked questions to help people understand the procedure.

While there are no estimates on the number of overseas Indians eligible to vote in India, only 24,348 have registered with the poll panel.

Out of these, 23,556 are from Kerala, 364 from Punjab and 14 from Gujarat, according to the data provided by the Commission.

According to the ‘Overseas Indian Voters’ portal, an overseas elector is a person who is a citizen of India and who has not acquired citizenship of any other country.

The portal can be accessed through the Election Commission website: eci.nic.in.

Such people are eligible to be registered as voters in the constituency in which their place of residence in India, as mentioned in their original Indian passport in which visa endorsement has been made, is located.

Once their name is registered as a voter, the election officials of the constituency concerned will inform the overseas Indian by post on his or latest address abroad.

But, the portal clarifies, that overseas electors are not issued an election photo identity card as they are allowed to cast vote in an election in the constituency in person at the polling station on showing their original passport.

Data shows that only 10,000 to 12,000 NRIs have voted because they do not want to spend foreign currency to come to India and exercise their franchise.

Now, things may change as the Union Cabinet had on August 2 cleared a proposal to extend proxy voting to overseas Indians by amending electoral laws.

While NRIs and overseas Indians are free to cast their votes in constituencies where they are registered, according to the proposal, they would also be allowed to use the option of proxy, which as of now is only available to service personnel.

An expert committee in the Election Commission working on the issue had, in 2015, forwarded the legal framework to the law ministry to amend electoral laws to allow overseas Indians use proxy voting.

But for every election, the overseas voters will have to name a new person as their proxy.

Proxy voting is allowed for members of the armed forces.

The bill to allow the new provision for overseas voters could not be introduced in the Monsoon session of Parliament which ended on Friday.

Comments

Mohammed Farooq
 - 
Monday, 14 Aug 2017

whats the portal link

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coastaldigest.com news network
April 24,2020

Mangaluru, Apr 24: The last rites of the elderly woman who died of covid-19 yesterday was finally held in the wee hours of Friday amidst tight security at Kaikunje Hindu Rudra Bhoomi near BC Road bus stand in spite of severe opposition from the members of the own community.

The funeral was held as per the protocol for COVID-19 deaths, police said.

Prior to this hundreds of Hindus had staged a protest  last night in front of Pachanady Hindu Rudra Bhoomi near Vamanjoor following reports that the the 77-year-old coronavirus positive woman's mortal remains will be cremated there.

Mangaluru North MLA Bharat Shetty rushed to the spot and convinced the protesters that he will not allow the authorities to cremate the body at Pachanady. Hence, the authorities shifted the cremation venue, it is learnt. 

Meanwhile, many local residents staged protest at Pachanady against the cremation of the dead body of a coronavirus positive woman. Hence, additional police force was sent from Mangaluru to disperse the crowd and facilitate the last rite.

According to sources, initially the authorities had  planned to cremate body at Baddakatte Hindu Rudra Bhoomi near here native place in Bantwal. However, the locals and the community elders had forced the authorities to change the plan.

Such protests due to misconception about the spread of coronavirus had been witnessed in some other parts of the country, including in Chennai, and the governments have warned of action against those opposing cremation or burial of COVID-19 patients.

So far as many as 17 covid-19 postive cases have been reported in Dakshina Kannada including two deaths from same family from Bantwal's Kasba village.

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News Network
February 23,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 23: The sleuths of Custom Department have seized ephedrine worth Rs 5 Crore in courier terminal of Air Cargo complex in Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), the department said on Sunday.

Customs Joint Commissioner M J Chethan, in a statement, said that Central Intelligence Unit, Air Cargo Complex, scanned the package while verifying export consignments and found concealment of some powder. 5.04 kg of Ephedrine worth Rs 5 crore was packed in polythene pouches and concealed between cardboard layers of wedding invitation cards.

Detailed examination of the Wedding cards revealed banned drugs hidden between 43 wedding invitation cards in the package that also contained a few clothes.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 23,2020

Mangaluru, June 23: G Jagadeesha, deputy commissioner of Udupi, who is heading the magisterial inquiry into the December 19 police firing case in Mangaluru, has sought more time from the government to submit the report.

Two innocent passersby - Nauseen Kudroli (49) and Abdul Jaleel Bengre (23) - were killed when policemen opened fire randomly after caning the alleged anti-CAA protesters in Mangaluru. 

The chief minister B S Yediyurappa led Karnataka state government had commissioned two inquires, one magisterial and the other CID, into the incident. 

“Due to the covid-19 pandemic the probe couldn’t be complete on time. I have asked the government for more time. Two more hearings are to be conducted,” said Mr Jagadeesha, who was expected to submit the report before the government on Tuesday.

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