NEW DELHI: A year and a part after retiring as a Government of India secretary, Om Prakash Rawat in August 2015 planned a leisure shuttle to Europe along with his circle of relatives. After the travel dates were showed and tickets booked, he and his spouse reached Delhi to get their visa. Rawat had already settled down in Bhopal, spending time in social paintings and academic lectures in faculties across MP, a state the place he had a protracted administrative career as an IAS officer.
Rawat, somewhat rapidly, received a phone call from the PMO when the caller sought to grasp whether he would like to sign up for as an election commissioner. He assented and assumed place of job the very next day. His surprising access into Nirvachan Sadan, on the other hand, intended he had neglected his European sojourn, leaving his spouse to travel by myself.
On Sunday, Rawat was appointed because the 22nd Chief Election Commissioner of India, changing AK Joti who's retiring on Monday. As CEC Rawat may have a tenure until December 2 — when he turns 65 — giving him a mandate to deal with elections in eight states beginning Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya next month; Karnataka in April-May; after which MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram later this year. "As CEC, my priority will be to have a continuity of delivering free, fair and credible elections through the engagement of all stakeholders and to build consensus on poll reforms," Rawat advised ET soon after the announcement.
On new reforms being initiated through the ballot frame, Rawat said: "We have been considering whether the migrants from one state to another can vote like the voters of the armed forces. Also, I support linking Aadhaar to the voters' identity. Biometrics should establish the identity before a voter enters into a polling booth and gets access to an EVM. The identification will then be foolproof."
"I, however, don't want any change in EVMs to integrate this feature. The EVM must remain a standalone machine with no connection to any other device or to the Internet," he added.
Son of a primary college trainer, Ram Swarup Rawat, and homemaker, Kamla Devi, Rawat grew up in a small UP town, Jhansi, and were given his early schooling in Hindi-medium govt schools. Later, he went to BHU to pursue masters in physics. He was all in favour of teachers, however now not getting decided on as a school lecturer in two successive interviews — he was a topper in BHU — made him suspect the selection procedure itself. He then sat for the Indian Forest Service examination and were given via in 1975.
While undergoing his probation in IFS Academy in Dehradun, he cracked the IAS examination.
"One of the most satisfying periods of my administrative career was when I visited one tribal village after another in MP (2007 and 2009) to enforce the Forest Rights Act, 2006." No surprise, Rawat and his staff received the PM's award for excellence in public administration in 2010 for imposing the rights of the tribal dwellers. Rawat's elevation as CEC comes at a time when EC's decision to droop 20 AAP MLAs is being questioned in some quarters.
Rawat had first of all recused himself within the case after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had questioned his impartiality, however was later persuaded to return on board. EC had also confronted the warmth right through the just-concluded Gujarat elections over the "enforcement or non-enforcement" of the style code of behavior.
For his friends and family even though, Rawat's elevation is simplest logical. Dr Chandra Prakash Gupta, a Gwalior-based paediatric and Rawat's classmate at school, said: "Ask anyone in MP, everyone who knows my friend will echo the same: he is intelligent, hard-working, down-to-earth and honest. For me though he has remained the same school boy I met many many years ago."
Rawat, somewhat rapidly, received a phone call from the PMO when the caller sought to grasp whether he would like to sign up for as an election commissioner. He assented and assumed place of job the very next day. His surprising access into Nirvachan Sadan, on the other hand, intended he had neglected his European sojourn, leaving his spouse to travel by myself.
On Sunday, Rawat was appointed because the 22nd Chief Election Commissioner of India, changing AK Joti who's retiring on Monday. As CEC Rawat may have a tenure until December 2 — when he turns 65 — giving him a mandate to deal with elections in eight states beginning Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya next month; Karnataka in April-May; after which MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram later this year. "As CEC, my priority will be to have a continuity of delivering free, fair and credible elections through the engagement of all stakeholders and to build consensus on poll reforms," Rawat advised ET soon after the announcement.
On new reforms being initiated through the ballot frame, Rawat said: "We have been considering whether the migrants from one state to another can vote like the voters of the armed forces. Also, I support linking Aadhaar to the voters' identity. Biometrics should establish the identity before a voter enters into a polling booth and gets access to an EVM. The identification will then be foolproof."
"I, however, don't want any change in EVMs to integrate this feature. The EVM must remain a standalone machine with no connection to any other device or to the Internet," he added.
Son of a primary college trainer, Ram Swarup Rawat, and homemaker, Kamla Devi, Rawat grew up in a small UP town, Jhansi, and were given his early schooling in Hindi-medium govt schools. Later, he went to BHU to pursue masters in physics. He was all in favour of teachers, however now not getting decided on as a school lecturer in two successive interviews — he was a topper in BHU — made him suspect the selection procedure itself. He then sat for the Indian Forest Service examination and were given via in 1975.
While undergoing his probation in IFS Academy in Dehradun, he cracked the IAS examination.
"One of the most satisfying periods of my administrative career was when I visited one tribal village after another in MP (2007 and 2009) to enforce the Forest Rights Act, 2006." No surprise, Rawat and his staff received the PM's award for excellence in public administration in 2010 for imposing the rights of the tribal dwellers. Rawat's elevation as CEC comes at a time when EC's decision to droop 20 AAP MLAs is being questioned in some quarters.
Rawat had first of all recused himself within the case after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal had questioned his impartiality, however was later persuaded to return on board. EC had also confronted the warmth right through the just-concluded Gujarat elections over the "enforcement or non-enforcement" of the style code of behavior.
For his friends and family even though, Rawat's elevation is simplest logical. Dr Chandra Prakash Gupta, a Gwalior-based paediatric and Rawat's classmate at school, said: "Ask anyone in MP, everyone who knows my friend will echo the same: he is intelligent, hard-working, down-to-earth and honest. For me though he has remained the same school boy I met many many years ago."
I support linking Aadhaar to voters’ identity: New CEC Om Prakash Rawat
![I support linking Aadhaar to voters’ identity: New CEC Om Prakash Rawat]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
January 22, 2018
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