Rajeev Kumar also said that the number of young voters had crossed 8 lakhs, and that there were 3.45 lakh young women voters aged 18-19 years.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajeev Kumar today said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) had deleted more than 22 lakh names from the voters' list in Telangana in the year 2022-23.
Speaking at a press conference, Kumar along with other Election Commissioners Arun Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel said that the names had been removed after thorough verification.
He also expressed happiness that the number of male and female voters were almost equal in Telangana, and that in 66 Assembly constituencies, women voters outnumbered men
He also said that the number of young voters had crossed 8 lakhs, and that there were 3.45 lakh young women voters aged 18-19 years.
About 2.21 lakh youth who had applied after the month of July had been given the right to vote, Kumar added.
Referring to the third gender, the CEC said that enrolment camps had been conducted for third gender voters in all districts, and meetings held with associations of third gender persons. The number of persons who were willing to identify as third gender had increased from 1,952 (on January 5, 2023) to 2,556 in the State, he said.
He also said that for the first time in Telangana, people above 80 years of age would be given the opportunity to vote from home.
There were a total of 35,508 polling stations in the State of which 14,458 were in urban areas and 20,898 stations were in rural areas, and the average number of voters per polling station was 897, he said.
The CEC also said that a mobile app named cVIGIL had been introduced to help conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. People could send recordings and reports of any violation of election rules through the app, which could also capture GIS locations, he said. The complaint would be addressed in a 100-minute timeline, he said, and added that the complainant could choose to remain anonymous.
The CEC also said that he had directed the enforcement agencies to take stringent action against use of money power, and curb the inflow and distribution of liquor, cash, freebies and drugs during the election.
"I appeal to the people of Telangana to participate in the festival of democracy by casting their votes and to cooperate with the administration to help it conduct free and fair elections," Kumar said.