New Delhi: Concerned over the "increase" in "manipulation" of electoral rolls in the country, the Election Commission is contemplating various steps, including displaying the voter lists on the Internet, to check the practice.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) J M Lyngdoh lamented that the legal action was not an appropriate deterrent to this practice.

He told reporters here that EC was working on new measures to implement the election code of conduct and instructions in this regard would be issued soon.

"Manipulations in electoral rolls are increasing day by day and it is generally attributed to the government of the day wherever it is," he said after inaugurating a conference of Electoral Management Bodies.

Lyngdoh pointed out "thousands" of names are deleted from the electoral rolls "for no reason" and "those included (in the voters list) who should not be there".

Stating that, "It is happening because there is electoral revision every year," he said "for us in the EC, it is not possible to monitor" this process in every corner of the country.

He said the Commission "was working to display the voter list on the Web so that manipulation becomes difficult".

The practice will start with Delhi, the CEC said.

Stating that such manipulations would be constituting some form of offence, Lyngdoh said due to delays in legal decisions, it could not be an appropriate deterrent.

Earlier, addressing the conference, Lyngdoh said computerisation of electoral rolls with 630 million voters had eased "much of the drudgery" involved in preparation and maintenance of voters' list.

"But much needs to be done to translate the use of advanced technologies to eliminate manipulation of the electoral rolls," he said.

The CEC said the introduction of photo identity cards at the time of voting had created awareness of the need to get a card.

"But we also realise that a lot of this enthusiasm has to do with the need for a multi-purpose identity cards. Perhaps efforts have to continue to improve the delivery of services which electoral bodies are mandated to provide to encourage more people to vote," he said.

"Ultimately, the extent of participation in a Democracy will have to be resolved in the political arena," he said.

Karen Fogg, secretary general of international non-governmental electoral watchdog IDEA, said participation of people in elections was key to Democracy.

Stating that violence during elections was a matter of concern, she said her organisation was focussing on financing of political parties as it was under a shadow.

PTI