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No bogus voters, claims CEO

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI SEPT. 23. The Chief Electoral Officer of Delhi, Arun Goyal, has termed the allegations of fake and bogus voters in the electoral rolls of Delhi as totally unfounded and twisting of facts. Stating that upgradation of the rolls in Delhi was a continuous process, the CEO informed that during the recent verification drive, 16,000 duplicate names were removed from the lists in various parts of the city.

In a statement released here today, he said a number of steps had been taken by the election office of Delhi to clean and update the electoral rolls. Based on computer generated lists sent to all Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) for verification of duplicate entries, more than 16,000 such entries had been deleted so far after following proper procedure as per law. The electoral rolls were read out at the meetings of the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs), wards and gram sabhas' in a special campaign from September 13 to 21. During this process, claims and objections were recorded and Forms 6,7 and 8 were disposed of. Due to the effective publicity during the voters' photo identity card campaign, the department facilitated filling up and collection of the relevant forms for inclusion, deletion and correction in the voters' lists. More than 3.5 lakh new forms have been received and over 500 staff members have been deployed for verification of these forms.

Mr. Goyal further said intensive revision of electoral rolls was carried out in the Capital with January 1, 2002, as the qualifying date. House-to-house verification was carried out. Based on this verification and after inviting claims and objections, the number of electors in Delhi came down from 88.95 lakh to 81.75 lakhs. This clearly showed that house-to-house intensive revision had led to removal of large-scale electors who had shifted their residence, died or got married. Subsequently, a special revision was carried out during November-December last year in which 1.86 lakh voters were added and 1.6 lakh voters deleted. After the special revision, the total number of voters stood at 82.56 lakhs. He said any eligible person who is already registered in a particular constituency and subsequently shifts residence or dies or leaves residence after marriage cannot be termed as fake or bogus and it is highly improper to term such voters as fake or bogus.

It may be clarified that only that voter in the electoral roll can be termed as fake or bogus who has never stayed in particular address and his name has been got mischievously included in the electoral rolls though illegal means.

He said even if the names of such persons remain on the rolls, then there is an inbuilt check and balance system like marking on finger by indelible ink, photo identity cards, other documentary evidence for establishing the identity, objections by polling agents to ensure that only genuine voters cast their votes. He said in cities like Delhi, there is always massive movement of people. There are number of people who migrate to Delhi on regular basis or people keep shifting their residences. But they cannot be termed as fake or bogus voters and the RO cannot delete their names without following proper procedure which includes providing opportunity to the voter concerned through a proper notice.

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