Bogus voting and missing names disrupted polling at many booths in the last phase of the panchayat election in Uttarakhand on Tuesday. Anguished voters alleged irregularities in the election process. Even a candidate was seen distributing snacks among the polling officials at a booth. When The Pioneer confronted the Presiding Officer with the issue, he expressed ignorance.
The voting at the Government Girls School located at Dehradun- Haridwar Road in Harrawala village of Doiwala block of Dehradun district was disrupted due to a massive protest raised by the local people. Irked at what they allege large-scale bogus voting the residents of the area blocked the busy Haridwar road. Senior police and administrative officers rushed to the spot and controlled the situation. The commuters, however, faced problems as the highway was blocked for about an hour.
One of the residents, Puran Singh Gusain, alleged that the officials of the polling party looked the other way while many people indulged in bogus voting. He said that when the agents and locals protested and even caught one youngster for bogus voting the police deployed at the polling station let him go.
Another local resident, Virendra Rawat, said that names of many people were missing from the voters' lists. A candidate for the position of Pradhan, B S Negi, alleged that the names of many people were deliberately removed and names of many outsiders were included in last-minute changes. He said that even the name of Indra Kotiyal, who was a ward member in the last panchayat body, was not found in the electoral rolls. An elderly man, Sita Ram, alleged that when he went inside the booth he was told that his vote had been cast.
The residents of Ranjhawala and Mianwala areas of Raipur block and Samshergarh in Doiwala areas (all of of Dehradun district) also complained about absence of names in the voters' lists. In polling booth number 13 in the Guru Ram Rai Inter College at Nehrugram village of Raipur block, the polling was disrupted for some time on the issue of incomplete voters' lists.
One of the candidates for the position of Pradhan in Nehrugram village, Nanda Rawat said that the polling staff had a voters' list in which some pages were not there due to which many people were not allowed to vote. When the locals raised protest senior officials rushed to the spot and provided a complete voters' list to the polling party.
When asked about the absence of a large number of names in the voters' list, the Deputy Commissioner State Election Commission Ajit Singh said that the commission undertook an extensive six-month long survey in the villages for making the voters' lists and again conducted another survey early this year. He said that the commission had repeatedly asked people to add their names in the voters' lists and the process of adding names was done just before filing of nomination papers for these elections.