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Thursday, Jan 10, 2008
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EC team checks State’s preparedness for polls

Special Correspondent

‘Publish draft electoral rolls by February first week’

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K

Meeting: Chief Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswami along with Election Commissioners Navin Chawla (left) and S.Y. Quraishi (second from right) with Governor Rameshwar Thakur at the Raj Bhavan in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: The Election Commission on Wednesday directed the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka to publish the draft electoral rolls by February first week. Earlier, January 20 had been fixed as the deadline.

This direction came after Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N. Gopalaswami and Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and S.Y. Quraishi held consultations with officials associated with revision of electoral rolls here on completing the revision ahead of the elections to the Legislative Assembly.

A senior official, who attended the meeting, told The Hindu that the commission took stock of the revision process and the preparedness of the State machinery for the Assembly polls.

The commission sought details on the reported “discrepancies” in the draft voters’ list and directed officials to correct them and speed up the process.

The officials held a division-wise review meeting and it was brought to the notice of CEC that many names of voters, who have either migrated, died or did not exist, were unearthed and such names were dropped from the list. In the morning, the electoral rolls of Gulbarga and Belgaum divisions were reviewed and in the afternoon, that of Mysore and Bangalore divisions were reviewed.

The CEC reviewed the progress on updating electoral rolls at a meeting attended by State Chief Electoral Officer R. Ramseshan, Deputy Election Commissioner R. Bhattacharya, four Regional Commissioners of Bangalore, Belgaum, Mysore and Gulbarga, Deputy Commissioners, senior officials of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike and other departments at the Vidhana Soudha.

Each Deputy Commissioner spoke on the progress of revision of the electoral rolls. The meeting did not discuss dates on holding of elections, official sources said.

In the evening, the commissioners called on Governor Rameshwar Thakur at the Raj Bhavan.

However, the details of the meeting were not known. Mr. Gopalawami expressed satisfaction over the exercise being undertaken in the State since December 15 and stated to have given some suggestions for weeding out the bogus voters from the list, the sources said.

The commission, for the first time, reviewed in detail the problems with regard to preparation of electoral list, steps to be taken to eliminate bogus voters, establishment of polling booths, and including the names of all those who have attained the age of 18.

The sources said the enrolment of voters aged above 18 in Bangalore city was a difficult task and the major reason for it was frequent transfer of the Joint Commissioner (Administration) of the BBMP.

The CEC did not touch on the issue of dates of holding elections in the State.

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