The Hindu : Rolls revision satisfactory: EC official

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 14, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada

Rolls revision satisfactory: EC official

By Our Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA, JAN. 13. The Election Commission (EC) observer, K.J. Rao, on Tuesday said people who were found resorting to irregularities in the on-going revision of electoral rolls would be booked under the Representation of People Act.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Rao said the Election Commission had deputed four teams to each State for revision of electoral rolls. S

He termed the progress of poll-related process satisfactory after his visit to the Kankipadu and Vijayawada East and West constituencies today as part of the second leg of his tour.

Commenting on the bulk applications received from various political parties, he said cases were booked against a few leaders under Section 31 of the Act for their alleged "failure" to furnish "full details" of the applicants.

They included K. Nagula Meera and K.V.P. Basaveswar Rao of the Telugu Desam Party, Karnati Venkateswar Rao and Malladi Vishnu of the Congress and Ganesh of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Similarly, cases were booked against eight persons in Khammam, 11 in Visakhapatnam and three in Nalgonda districts, he added.

Mr. Rao, however, denied reports on having fixed a percentage for enrolment of voters. "We have received some 1.2 crore applications from residual voters from across the State.

Notices had been issued to them for verification of facts. This probably has sent out wrong signals,'' he explained.

These residual voters were given one week time to respond to the notices to ascertain their identity and after a thorough verification, a suo motu deletion of some 35 per cent of the applications was done under Section 22 of the Representation of People's Act, he maintained.

Referring to complaints on removal of names of migrants from the electoral rolls, Mr. Rao said a person could enjoy his right to vote only at a place he lived in. Reacting to the CPI(M) leader, Y. Kesav Rao's suggestion that gram sabhas be organised for verification and transparency, Mr. Rao said it was not possible at this juncture.

Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Partyand the CPI said many genuine voters had not been given photo identity cards. Reacting to this,

Mr. Rao said 86.1 per cent of the cards had been distributed, which was more than the satisfactory level.

No major objections were raised by political parties when they were invited to air their views and opinions by officials at the all-party meet.

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