Voters can now locate polling stations online

Voters of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh will now be able to locate their polling stations online, thanks to the Election Commission's new mapping service

Voters of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh would now be able to locate their polling stations and see the satellite image of the building and roads leading to it - thanks to the Election Commission's new mapping service launched.

The commission's website, www.eci.nic.in, has added a new tab - Information Linked to Polling Station Maps, which enables people to avail polling station maps online.

Polling station locations of National Capital Territory of Delhi and Himachal Pradesh have already been plotted on maps and can be seen by citizens when they visit the concerned page on the website of Election Commission of India.

According to the commission, polling station maps for the rest of India are being plotted and will be available on the website soon.

On the page, citizens will see the names of states for which maps of polling stations are available. They can select district, assembly constituency and polling station names from drop down lists and click a button to see polling station locations of the selected area on the map viewer on the page.

Users can activate the satellite image layer and even see the polling station buildings and the roads leading to it.

There is also a link provided for electoral rolls. On clicking this link, electoral roll for that polling station opens up and can be saved by the user on his local computer and also printed from the local computer.

House sparrow declared “State Bird of Delhi”

The good old house sparrow, which is becoming rarer by the day, has been declared “State Bird of Delhi”  as part of a new campaign to save the species and enhance awareness about their life and habitat.

Launching “Rise for the Sparrows”, India’s largest conservation programme for these birds, the decision to declare them the “State Bird’’ would help in raising awareness about and drawing attention to the species.

The Chief Minister expressed concern over lack of attention and recognition the bird has received thus far.  Delhi being one of the greenest cities in the world has a tremendous scope for urban conservation of which the sparrow would now be the mascot and bio-indicator.

The Delhi Government would now consider incorporating common bird monitoring in the school curriculum to make schools and other organisations sparrow and bird friendly. The Nature Forever Society will be providing all help and resources to the Delhi Government in this regard.

Ms. Dikshit also urged the citizens to register on the Common Bird Monitoring of India website, www.cbmi.in, to monitor the sparrows and other common birds in around their places of residence and work.

Mohammed Dilawar of Nature Forever Society, who has been working on this project for more than a year, said the format of the project is both dynamic and interactive, and resources will be continuously added to it over a period of time.