Absence of the names in the electoral rolls coupled with bogus voting deprived many people from voting in the first stage of panchayat elections on Wednesday.
The rural electorate of Vikasnagar and Chakrata blocks of Dehradun exercised their franchise in the first stage. In Ambadi village of Vikasnagar block the irate villagers argued with the District Panchayati Raj officer (DRPO) MM Khan on the issue of bogus voting.
With voter card in his hand Nusru a resident of Ambadi village told this correspondent that he was shocked when he was told that his vote has already been cast. One woman claimed that votes of those who are not even in the villages have been cast. Prominent BJP leader Ravindra Jugran on Tuesday had raised his apprehension of large scale bogus voting and claimed that the per cent of bogus voting could touch 30 percent.
In Badhwala village many people complained that their names do not exist in the voter list.
One such person, Dhan Bahadur said that he works in Himachal Pradesh and he came to his native village to vote only to be told that his name is not there in the voter list.
He said that he had cast his vote in the recent lok Sabha elections. Purbala, Nandu Kala, Durga Bahadur, Sharwan Kumar of this village had similar tales to tell. In Jeewangarh, Dhakrani, Ambadi and East Hope town villages many villagers complained about absence of their names in the voting list.
The Deputy Commissioner State Election Commission Ajit Singh said that the commission undertook extensive six month long survey in the villages for making voter list and again conducted another survey early this year.
He said that the commission had repeatedly asked people to add their names in the voter list and process of adding names was done just before filing of nomination papers for these elections.