The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : 51 lakh non-existent voters removed from electoral rolls

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Thursday, Feb 07, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

51 lakh non-existent voters removed from electoral rolls

Special Correspondent

‘Persons whose names are found in more than one place can be prosecuted’

Publication of draft electoral rolls on February 14
Final list to be published on
March 10

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Tightening the system: Chief Electoral Officer R. Ramaseshan addressing a press conference at his office in Bangalore on Wednesday.

BANGALORE: A record 51 lakh non-existent voters have been removed from the electoral rolls all over the State and around 20 lakh genuine voters have been added to the list.

Speaking to presspersons here on Wednesday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) R. Ramaseshan said the draft electoral rolls would be published on February 14, instead of February 7.

The final list would be published on March 10, as scheduled.

More than 45,000 people, including nodal officers and supervisors, had been involved in the review of rolls.

Stating that this was one of the biggest exercises in checking the electoral rolls, he said that every day almost one lakh names of voters had been removed.

With this, the number of voters had come down to 3.96 crore from 4.27 crore.

The highest number of deletions of around 4.7 lakh voters was in Bangalore Urban district and the area under the jurisdiction of the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.

The lowest was in Chamarajanagar, where 50,000 names were removed.

On an average, some 20,000 voters had been removed in each of the 224 Assembly constituencies.

Changes

In all, he said there were 70 lakh changes with 12 per cent deletions and four per cent additions.

He clarified that a majority of the names removed were not “bogus” voters, as alleged by some parties.

They were dead voters whose names had remained on the lists.

The real problem, he said, was posed by those who shifted their residence to other areas and failed to inform the authorities concerned to remove their names from the earlier booth.

He said that those persons whose names were found in more than one polling booth were liable to be prosecuted.

Copy

Mr. Ramaseshan said that all the seven recognised political parties in the State would be provided with the draft electoral rolls along with the list of those whose names had been removed and added for verification.

They would be provided with both hard and soft copy. The details would be available on the website and the offices of the deputy commissioner, assistant commissioner, tahsildar, corporations and municipalities.

Individual voters could also approach the authorities concerned and inform them of the changes in address or other details.

He said that the annual review of the rolls cost the government Rs. 55 crore.

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