The Hindu : Tandon to visit Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 23, 2004

National

National

Tandon to visit Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, FEB. 22. The Election Commissioner, B.B. Tandon, accompanied by K.J. Rao, Commission's Consultant, will visit Pondicherry on February 23 and 24 and Tamil Nadu on the following two days to review poll preparedness and to ensure that the electoral rolls have been updated.

Highly-placed sources said Mr. Tandon would discuss with officials in Pondicherry and Tamil Nadu all issues to ensure a free and fair election.

Last week, Mr. Rao visited Tamil Nadu and inspected the rolls in Madurai and a few districts. According to sources, the State authorities had deleted several names on the basis of the reports submitted by verification teams.

Door-to-door verification of rolls in the 14 Assembly constituencies of Chennai had been carried out following complaints of largescale deletion of the names of genuine voters.

As the Commission has asked Tamil Nadu to publish the corrected rolls by February 25, Mr. Tandon and Mr. Rao would ascertain from the officials if the errors and irregularities pointed out had been rectified.

Tamil Nadu is one of the few States where the voter percentage to the total population was well above the national average.

Even after the deletion of about 23 lakh voters in August last year, the percentage was very high and this necessitated the Commission to order a fresh verification.

In the fresh exercise, there were complaints that largescale deletions had taken place and hence a door-to-door verification was ordered with the direction that it should be completed by February 14 and this direction was complied with by Tamil Nadu.

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