STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: The list of names deleted from Bihar’s draft electoral rolls following special intensive revision has been posted on the websites of district magistrates following the Supreme Court’s orders, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said on Sunday.
Hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, the Supreme Court had last week asked the Election Commission (EC) to publish details of 65 lakh deleted names from the voters list with reasons of non-inclusion to enhance transparency in the process.
Addressing a press conference here, Kumar said that within 56 hours of the top court directive, the names of voters that were not included in the draft electoral roll have been posted on district websites.
He also underlined that the election system for parliament and assembly elections in India is a multi-layered, decentralised construct as envisaged by law.
Based on the guidelines issued by the Election Commission, Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), who are SDM-level officers, prepare and finalise the Electoral Rolls (ER) with the help of Booth Level Officers (BLOs).
EROs and BLOs undertake the responsibility for the correctness of Electoral Rolls, it said.
After the publication of the draft electoral rolls, their digital and physical copies are shared with all political parties and put on the EC website for anyone to see.
Following the publication of the draft electoral rolls, a full one-month period is available with the electors and political parties for the filing of claims and objections before the final ER is published, he explained.
The draft electoral roll was published on August 1 in Bihar and it will be available till September 1 for claims and objections under which parties and individuals can seek inclusion of eligible citizens or exclusion of those they believe are ineligible.
The CEC defended the SIR at the press conference on Sunday and said it is a matter of grave concern that some parties were spreading “misinformation” on the exercise.
The Chief Election Commissioner said instances of a person holding multiple voter identity cards arise due to migration or administrative lapses and the poll authority is working to rectify such mistakes.
Kumar also said the ‘House number zero’ issue flagged by political parties also arises as several voters do not have a home or their homes have not been given numbers by the panchayat or their respective municipality.
Kumar said the Commission had also addressed the issue of the same voter identity card number allotted to different persons in different states and corrected three lakh such instances.
“Even if a person has votes in two places, he goes to vote at only one place. Voting at two places is a crime and if any person makes a claim of double voting, then proof is required. Proof was asked but was not given,” the CEC said.
Kumar said knowingly or unknowingly, some people have ended up having multiple voter identity cards due to migration and other issues, and exercises like the special intensive revision (SIR) would rectify such discrepancies.