EC’s intervention sought over anomaly in poll rolls

Avneet Kaur

Jalandhar, September 19

As the process of revision as well verification of electoral rolls is underway, some residents from rural areas have pointed out an anomaly in electoral rolls and have appealed to the Election Commission for its intervention.

As per residents, a large number of families residing in different villages of the region have shifted to nearby towns long ago but have not got their votes shifted to their actual place of residence.

They said this trend has been adopted by people in the state keeping in view their vested interest in the panchayat elections.

“The trend is not only violating the guidelines of the Election Commission but it is one of the major reasons of low percentage of polling in the parliamentary and assembly polls,” said Pritpal Singh of Lambra village, while urging the Election Commission to take immediate effective steps to ensure shifting of votes at the actual place of residence of the voters.

He further alleged that booth level officers (BLO) were aware of this trend but they never report it to the District Election Officer. There were a large number of residents in villages, who have either moved to cities or abroad permanently and have sold their property in the country, but they still come to cast their vote and no one ever objects.

Another resident Kuldeep Singh of Begowal said: “My neighbours shifted to Mohali around three years ago. However, during elections they visit the village to cast their vote and even members of political parties make sure to approach them when elections approach.”

He said address on voter id was never checked and officials during elections already have a list of particular area in hand, thus, nobody bothers to check whether the person actually belongs to the same address or not.

Meanwhile, Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma denied any such discrepancies in the electoral roll.

He said the process of registering as eligible voter or making changes in the already registered details were easy as well transparent and could be done through the National Voter’s Service Portal.