Effort to help electorates in adding their names in the electoral roll by the Election Commission with the help of facilitators has failed miserably in serving its purpose. In many cases the facilitators appointed to collect details of electorates played spoilsport and could not reach on doorsteps, a disappointment for many.
A resident from Old AG Colony, Kardu, Mohit Ranjan expressing his plight said, “I have been constantly calling the concerned facilitator from the past couple of weeks but to no avail. He kept giving me solace and never came. Finally, I went to the nearest polling booth to get my name enrolled in the voters’ list under the campaign organised across the country to provide last chance to the left out voters.”
As per the Commission’s directives persons above 18 years who lack voter ID card can obtain the card at their door step by providing the facilitator two passport size photograph, birth certificate and a sum of `50. The concept was instigated some six months back. As many as 11 facilitators from Khijri, Ranchi, Hatia and Kanke have been appointed by the office of the District Electoral officer of Ranchi. The basic idea behind the concept was to increase the number of efficient voters.
“Whenever I called the facilitator for rendering the service received a similar reply ‘right now I am busy will come the other day’. From past couple of months I have been receiving this reply. I don’t understand why Government introduces such concept which do not relevance on groundIJ” commented Krishna Jha another resident.
Interestingly, the facilitators on the other hand have blamed the electorates for the failure of the system. Hatia Assembly Constituency Facilitator Shyam Nandan said, “The Government is not paying us a penny for rendering the service. How much we can work on our own expenses. Moreover, the electorates waste the time by not placing the required documents. Till date have registered only 400 applicants name and had delivered 100 cards.”
“The target was enrolling atleast ten to fifteen applicants a day but we could register only two to three applicants name as a result of which could get success in enrolling as many as 500 applicants till date. The basic reason behind this is lack of cooperation from the peoples end,” added Bhaskar Facilitator of Kanke constituency.