Believe it or not! There are contemporaries of India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who are still alive and kicking in the National Capital. There are three senior citizens — Prashant Kumar Yadav, Samim Harami and Chanda Shah — who are 125-year-old. They were born in 1888 while Pandit Nehru was born in 1889.
According to the draft of the Delhi’s Electoral Roll, there are 447 people, including 231 women and 216 men, in the city who are over 100 years old. Chief Electoral Officer has asked his staff to visit these senior citizens and conduct physical verification to ascertain their exact date of birth. Named as 'Error Detection Policy', this exercise is aimed at ensuring the correct personal details of electors’ names registered in the electoral roll. This was done after the recent Assembly elections in Karnataka saw a 5,000-year-old person’s name appearing in the voter list.
Prashant Kumar Yadav, 125, is a resident of J-1/4 lane J-1 Block J Krishna Nagar and his voter ID card number is NBJ1949872. Similarly, Shamim Harami is residing in Prakash Mohalla, Garhi, and his voter ID number is ARE1612273. Chanda Shah, who resides in 72/73A-1 Block Mohan Garden, has a voter ID bearing number SBJ12292159.
Bijender, whose voter ID card number is XVX1970887, is 124-year-old. Jatin Bansal, who resides in Arvind Nagar, is 119-year-old and his voter ID card number is WAM2026771. Interestingly there is a couple named Jodh Ram and Basanti who are 112-year-old and they reside in JJ Colony, Hastsal. "During the scrutiny of draft rolls, it was revealed that a large number of people in Delhi are above the age of 100 years. The electoral office of Delhi has directed Electorate Registration Officers and Deputy Commissioners (Revenue) to visit personally to verify the identity cards of the voters and ascertain that all details are correctly mentioned in the electoral rolls. The final list of electoral rolls will be published by next month," Vijay Dev, Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi said.
The break-up of those over 100 years of age is quite interesting. Kamal, a resident of Govindpuri, is 118-year-old, while Priyanka, who resides at JJ Colony, Bakkarwala, is 114. Ramesh Singh Negi, Dilip Singh, Prem Bahadur Balvinder Kumar Goura, Sunita, Vijender and Vinod Kumar are also 114-year-old. Kamar Jahn, Prem Chand, Santosh, Phooleshwer, Rakesh, Jemol Anna Thomas Vada Kekra, Kavita, Kanta Sharma, Swarna Devi, Yogesh Kumar, Santosh, Mohamamd and Afroz Alam are 113-year-old and are enrolled in the city's voter list. Similarly Niladri Sharma, Shanta Devi, S Srivatsan, Ahok Kumar Singh, Ravi, Mira, Jodh Ram, Basanti, Raj Kumar, Raj Kumar Singh, Ajay, Deepak Kr, Sanjay Bahadu, Bhagwanti Pahwa, Anil Kumar and Manita are in the age group of 112 years.
Out of 447 voters who are over 100 years, there are three who are 125 years, one at 124, one at 119, one at 118, eight people at 114, 12 at 113, 24 at 112, six at 110, 29 at 107, 38 at 106, 20 at 105, 35 at 104, 34 at 103, 61 at 102, 38 at 101 and 119.
The longevity of age in the National Capital can be gauged from the fact that there are 91,318 people who are above 80 years of age and they all are registered in the voters’ list.