By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 1 May: Electoral rolls for the upcoming Municipal Elections in Uttarakhand are due for revision. The State Election Commission has clarified that, following some complaints regarding missing names of many voters including those who are considering contesting the elections, that rectification of the electoral rolls will be done before the polls. Following the polling held for Parliamentary Elections on 19 April, the preparations for the Municipal Polls have intensified. The Uttarakhand High Court had not taken a positive view of the delay and, in their response, the State Election Commission and the State Government had assured the court that the elections would be held at the earliest. This assurance was given around four months ago.
Recently, the State Election Commission released the voters’ lists for each ward. However, following the release, political parties, leaders and individuals have alleged that names of many voters and also of those wishing to contest the elections are missing from the lists. In view of the seriousness of the issue, Joint Secretary of the State Election Commission, Rahul Kumar Goyal has issued orders to all the District Magistrates and directed them to ensure rectification of the voters’ lists by adding the missing names and rectifying any other mistakes in the rolls.
According to the order issued by the State Election Commission, while preparing the voter list of the wards of Municipal Corporation Dehradun, the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have not even taken cognisance of the delimitation of the boundaries of the wards and the rolls have been mixed up. The Commission has also admitted that the voters’ lists have been prepared carelessly and, as a result, several anomalies have been found. In such a situation, the electoral rolls need to be improved under the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Bodies (Preparation and Revision of Electoral Roll) Supplementary Provisions Order 1999.
The State Election Commission had declared that special camps will be organised for 7 days in every ward of the civic bodies of all the districts. Along with adding the names of voters in the lists at these camps, other mistakes will also be rectified and the information will be provided to the State Election Commission within the next 15 days.
According to the complainants, not only have the names of many voters been removed from the electoral roll released in view of the civic elections, but many other shortcomings have also been seen. Both, the BJP and Congress, have been seen raising questions on this issue. A BJP delegation had called on State Election Commission Joint Secretary Rahul Kumar Goyal on Monday and submitted a memorandum. Along with this, the MLA from Raipur Assembly seat Umesh Sharma Kau had also submitted a complaint to the State Election Commission. Taking cognisance of these two letters, the State Election Commission has instructed all the District Magistrates including that of Dehradun to remove these shortcomings.
Along with this, taking cognisance of the letter of former Dehradun Mayor Sunil Uniyal Gama, Joint Secretary Goyal has also instructed the Dehradun District Election Officer/District Magistrate to include the names of missing voters in the voter lists of all the localities in all the 100 wards of Dehradun Municipal Corporation. The DM/DEO has been directed to conduct investigation through Electoral Registration Officer in case a complaint is received about names of electors missing from the rolls. If the complaint regarding the roll is found to be true, then the Electoral Registration Officer will send his investigation report and recommendations to the Commission through the District Officer. In such a situation, if the Commission orders, the names of such electors will be included in the rolls.
