The deletion of names from the electoral rolls has been a matter of political controversy and speculation since long but the Election Commission of India’s assertion on “incorrect” deletion on Friday gave credence to it.
In Chandigarh to hold review meetings with the Deputy Commissioners of Punjab’s all districts, the Deputy Election Commissioner of India Sandeep Saxena on Friday said that in many places, it was noticed that names from the electoral rolls were incorrectly deleted.
“Special attention should be paid towards two entries of voters who have permanently changed their addresses,” he said adding that in case of death, it should be ensured that name of the respective voter would be deleted from the electoral roll.
Saxena, who held a divisional level review meeting in the office of Punjab Chief Electoral Officer besides holding a video conference with the Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) and Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AERO) in the presence of Deputy Chief Election Commissioner of India Alok Shukla and Punjab’s Chief Electoral Officer Dr S Karuna Raju, categorically said that no person above the age of 18 years should be deprived of enrolling in the voters list.
“Due to the similarity of the majority names in the State, problem erupts in the process of correcting voter lists. Therefore, the photographs in voter lists should be used to help,” he said, while specifically adding that the pictures must be clean and the double entries should be deleted by all means.
Saxena asked the Deputy Commissioners to go to every village and meet the booth level officers and booth level agents of political parties to gauge the group-level situation, which would be helpful to assess the position of all the districts.
He also asked that in many places, the votes of members of a family are on two or more different polling booths, which needs to be rationalized.
Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla apprised the Deputy Commissioners about the technical information for corrections of the voter lists.
During the meeting, the Deputy Commissioners were asked to report the problems of their district and asked about the work executive. Expressing satisfaction over their performance, suggestions were also given to the Deputy Commissioners.