Strange but true. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi to conduct a probe on January 14 against errant officers responsible for adding bogus voters and initiate action against them the very next day! Officials are aghast over this order as it is next to impossible to conduct a probe in this matter in one day and then order punishment too. ECI directions came in the wake of a writ petition no. 9452 of 2014, Dr Naresh Kumar Vs Chief Electoral Officer and Another regarding electoral rolls of Delhi.
Sources said that it seems that ECI is just doing a formality as it is not possible to detect discrepancies and fix errant officers who were responsible for this mess of bogus voters ID cards. “To furnish the outcome of the Additional District Magistrate level enquiries conducted and remedial action taken and responsibility fixed on errant officers, if any to the Commission by January 15 for taking further action in the matter,” the ECI said in its order.
It is strange that ECI directions came on January 14 and it directed Delhi CEO to find out discrepancies, verify it and take action against errant officers by January 15. “All the discrepancies pointed out in the said paper should be properly verified and reconciled and the electoral rolls should also be further scrutinised to detect such discrepancies, if any and take adequate measures for its removal in pursuant of order of the Delhi High Court in the matter,” it said. Putting a question mark over the competence of election authorities that they had not deliberately made errors, their competence had come under question, the Delhi High Court had earlier directed Election Commission to file an affidavit by January 19.
All India Congress Committee member Naresh Kumar, who unsuccessfully contested from Mundka constituency in the 2014 Assembly polls, had moved the petition with the claim that there were “serious irregularities” in almost every constituency. A large number of people in the Capital had numerous voter cards in their name but with different addresses, he said.
Justice Vibhu Bakhru of the High Court pulled up the Election Commission and the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) during the hearing on a writ petition, alleging the presence of a large number of bogus voters in Delhi. The court said the election authorities had failed to explain why errors had crept into the electoral rolls.