In a press note, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said The German Foreign Minister was accompanied by four Members of Parliament and other officers from her Foreign Office. Speaking on the occasion, CEC Rajiv Kumar said that the idea of democracy is deeply rooted in India's historical context and traditions.

Chandigarh (Punjab) [India], December 16 (ANI): As part of a voter awareness campaign, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra and two Election Commissioners flagged off Voter Awareness Vans in Punjab on Thursday.

New Delhi Nov 22 PTI The Election Commission EC on Monday held a conference with chief electoral officers CEOs of all states and union territories here and reviewed a host of issues related to the poll process in the countryThe event was chaired by Chief Election Commissioner CEC Sushil Chandra who stressed on the expeditious redressal of all pending applications especially with regard to voter registrationAn EC spokesperson said in a statement that the conference discussed and reviewed various thematic issues related to electoral rolls polling stations ongoing special summary revision IT information technology applications timely resolution of grievances electronic voting machines EVMs voter verifiable paper audit trail VVPAT training and capacity building of polling staff media and communication and extensive voter outreach program amongst othersCEC Chandra the statement said stressed on the significance of effectiveness and visibility of the CEOs as they represent the commission in the statesHe CEC asked the CEOs to ensure purity of the electoral roll availability of assured minimum facilities and to ensure better facilities at all polling booths for all voters it saidChandra told the CEOs that all efforts should be made to ensure better voter experienceCEOs should have regular interaction with political parties to redress their grievances if any Chandra saidThe CEC emphasised that new initiatives and best practices by the CEOs for election-related activities should be regularly disseminated through the media for enhanced outreachHe said that the objective of the conference was to identify the gaps and challenges to ensure instructions of the commission are implemented uniformly in all states and union territories across the countryElection commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anup Chandra Pandey also attended the conference and spoke to the officersKumar said the legal and regulatory framework of the elections is quite robust but the implementation of various instructions of the commission at the field was very criticalHe Kumar stressed that CEOs need to be innovative be more active and should learn from each others best practices and challenges the statement saidPandey asked the CEOs to ensure good training and capacity building of BLOs booth level officers as the effectiveness of EC activities depends upon the effective implementation by field-level election officialsHe Pandey emphasised that CEOs need to ensure that correct information and facts are regularly shared with local media for enhanced outreach the statement saidThe conference also saw the commission release a number of publications including a Compendium of Cases on Election Law and an Information Booklet For VotersThe booklet contains end-to-end information starting from voter registration postal ballot casting of vote through EVM-VVPAT and various facilities provided for the voters at polling stations the statement said PTI NES IJT