REVIEW MEETING: Chief Electoral Officer Naresh Gupta at the District Collectors' meeting at the Secretariat in Chennai on Thursday. — Photo: S. R. Raghunathan

CHENNAI: Even as the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) on Thursday urged the Election Commission (EC) to take steps to ensure that names of genuine voters were not removed from the revised electoral rolls, constituents of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)-led Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) claimed that a survey conducted by them had revealed that nine lakh bogus applications had been submitted.

Shortly after listening to the views of nine recognised political parties at a meeting here, the Deputy Election Commissioner, R.C. Mishra, said the EC would take all possible steps to ensure that the entire rolls revision process was "fair, transparent and above board."

Feedback sought

Explaining the purpose of discussions with representatives of political parties, Mr. Mishra said the EC wanted to have a feedback from them, besides enabling them to bring to the Commission's notice their specific requests on the issue.

"We have just started the process [of rolls revision] and there is a long way to go," he said, adding that he would also hold discussions with the District Collectors and Electoral Registration Officers.

He would visit Coimbatore on Friday and Madurai on Saturday. Further instructions would be given to them to ensure that the process was completed in an accurate manner, he said.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Naresh Gupta, said that the progress of verifying claims and objections was reviewed at a meeting of Collectors and Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) of six northern districts.

The Collectors of Nagapattinam, Thanjavur and Tiruvarur could not attend the meeting in view of an ongoing agitation in the delta, he pointed out.

The Commissioner of Chennai Corporation, M.P. Vijayakumar, and Collectors, Pankajkumar Bansal (Tiruvallur), R. Venkatesan (Kancheepuram), S. Gopalakrishnan (Vellore), Sudeep Jain (Dharmapuri), Gagandeepsingh Bedi (Cuddalore) and K.Balachandran (Villupuram) participated in the meeting.

Srinivasaraghavan, District Revenue Officer, Tiruvannamalai, also attended.

The AIADMK treasurer, C. Srinivasan, said the EC was asked to take adequate care to see that no eligible voter was left out while preparing the revised rolls.

Door-to-door verification

If the eligible applicants were not available at their residences during door-to-door verification, their names should be included after crosschecking the veracity of facts given in their applications with their neighbours.

The party also pleaded with the Commission to expedite the process of verification.

The DMK treasurer, N. Veerasamy, Congress Legislature Party leader, S.R. Balasubramoniyan, and Pattali Makkal Katchi president, G.K. Mani, said a survey undertaken by activists of the DPA in 165 Assembly segments in the State had revealed that around nine lakh bogus applications had been submitted for inclusion in the electoral rolls.

Mr. Mishra had assured them that action would be taken against erring officials and persons who had furnished wrong information to stuff the rolls, after the verification process was completed, Mr. Veerasamy said.

He also expressed satisfaction at the assurance given by the EC that the "999" category would be eliminated in due course.

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