HYDERABAD: Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) and Aadhaar linkage taken up by way of Election Commission of India (ECI) as part of National Electoral Roll Purification and Authentication Programme (NERPAP) in 2015, which left 30 lakh voters in Telangana and 25 lakh voters in Andhra Pradesh out of the electoral process, has come again to hang-out ballot officials with Lok Sabha elections not far away.
Crucial paperwork dug up by way of information security mavens using the Right to Information (RTI) Act in addition to information mining has put a query mark at the GHMC’s voter verification exercise.
CEO: Deleted voters given ample possibilities to re-apply
A letter by way of the then leader electoral officer (CEO), Bhanwar Lal, to ECI secretary on August 8, 2015, states: ‘The door-to-door verification has now not been performed properly in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Limits.”
Swecha, an organisation working on deletion of voters, stated that several voters discovered their names lacking from electoral rolls all the way through the 2018 Telangana Assembly election and the same is prone to occur in the Lok Sabha polls in the following couple of months.
Bhanwar Lal, in the letter received through RTI, pointed out: ‘There are many court cases mentioning that the booth-level officials have now not visited their properties in GHMC. There are not any court cases in different districts of Telangana except for in GHMC.” Bhanwar Lal additionally stated that CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had known as him up and enquired about poor linking and verification in GHMC limits in July 2015.
ECI had launched NERPAP on March 2015 to link Voter ID with Aadhaar and it persevered until August 11, 2015, when the Supreme Court suspended it. In the letter, Bhanwar Lal mentioned, “In AP, Aaadhar has been connected to 76% electors, while in Telangana except for GHMC area it used to be 84%. In the 24 assembly constituencies in GHMC area, it used to be 45% by way of August 8. The electors shown as ineligible, useless, shifted, door lock or now not enrolled at the day of debate with the chief minister on July 20 in 2015 used to be 64% and on August 8 it used to be 53%. This displays the poor programme of linking in GHMC and door-to-door verification has now not been performed properly.”
Srinivas Kodali, an information security researcher, advised TOI, “The exercise has impacted the Telangana assembly election at scale primarily because of Aadhaar-Voter ID linking pilot undertaking, which used to be carried out in Nizamabad and Hyderabad since 2014. Swecha together with Rethink Aadhaar has received evidence of several discrepancies all the way through the exercise.”
Telangana leader electoral officer Rajat Kumar advised TOI, “I'm conscious about paperwork received through RTI. ECI has finished two major purifications — NERPAP and extensive electoral rolls revision since 2015. We have taken ample precautions by way of publishing the names of deleted voters every now and then to provide chance to them to apply again. Ample opportunities were given more than one occasions to post Form-6 for enrolment. We have spent crores in campaigns asking other people to test their names in the electoral rolls and observe if their names were deleted.”
“Some other people have come again at the rolls, may be not up to 5% got re-enrolled. This way majority of deletions are authentic. No person’s vote is deleted casually. Due diligence used to be finished. Due to human mistakes, some (votes) will have came about (deleted) for which administrative action can be taken in opposition to the erring body of workers,” he added.
“Before the 2018 Telangana Assembly polls, we had added 26 lakh new voters. In the recent ultimate voter record, we have now added any other 17 lakh new voters. We have taken in writing assurance from booth-level officer that they have got finished verification. The fresh electoral rolls are posted at the CEO’s site (ceotelangana.nic.in). People can take a look at their names in the electoral rolls. If their name is located lacking, they may be able to observe again,” he added.
Crucial paperwork dug up by way of information security mavens using the Right to Information (RTI) Act in addition to information mining has put a query mark at the GHMC’s voter verification exercise.
CEO: Deleted voters given ample possibilities to re-apply
A letter by way of the then leader electoral officer (CEO), Bhanwar Lal, to ECI secretary on August 8, 2015, states: ‘The door-to-door verification has now not been performed properly in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Limits.”
Swecha, an organisation working on deletion of voters, stated that several voters discovered their names lacking from electoral rolls all the way through the 2018 Telangana Assembly election and the same is prone to occur in the Lok Sabha polls in the following couple of months.
Bhanwar Lal, in the letter received through RTI, pointed out: ‘There are many court cases mentioning that the booth-level officials have now not visited their properties in GHMC. There are not any court cases in different districts of Telangana except for in GHMC.” Bhanwar Lal additionally stated that CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had known as him up and enquired about poor linking and verification in GHMC limits in July 2015.
ECI had launched NERPAP on March 2015 to link Voter ID with Aadhaar and it persevered until August 11, 2015, when the Supreme Court suspended it. In the letter, Bhanwar Lal mentioned, “In AP, Aaadhar has been connected to 76% electors, while in Telangana except for GHMC area it used to be 84%. In the 24 assembly constituencies in GHMC area, it used to be 45% by way of August 8. The electors shown as ineligible, useless, shifted, door lock or now not enrolled at the day of debate with the chief minister on July 20 in 2015 used to be 64% and on August 8 it used to be 53%. This displays the poor programme of linking in GHMC and door-to-door verification has now not been performed properly.”
Srinivas Kodali, an information security researcher, advised TOI, “The exercise has impacted the Telangana assembly election at scale primarily because of Aadhaar-Voter ID linking pilot undertaking, which used to be carried out in Nizamabad and Hyderabad since 2014. Swecha together with Rethink Aadhaar has received evidence of several discrepancies all the way through the exercise.”
Telangana leader electoral officer Rajat Kumar advised TOI, “I'm conscious about paperwork received through RTI. ECI has finished two major purifications — NERPAP and extensive electoral rolls revision since 2015. We have taken ample precautions by way of publishing the names of deleted voters every now and then to provide chance to them to apply again. Ample opportunities were given more than one occasions to post Form-6 for enrolment. We have spent crores in campaigns asking other people to test their names in the electoral rolls and observe if their names were deleted.”
“Some other people have come again at the rolls, may be not up to 5% got re-enrolled. This way majority of deletions are authentic. No person’s vote is deleted casually. Due diligence used to be finished. Due to human mistakes, some (votes) will have came about (deleted) for which administrative action can be taken in opposition to the erring body of workers,” he added.
“Before the 2018 Telangana Assembly polls, we had added 26 lakh new voters. In the recent ultimate voter record, we have now added any other 17 lakh new voters. We have taken in writing assurance from booth-level officer that they have got finished verification. The fresh electoral rolls are posted at the CEO’s site (ceotelangana.nic.in). People can take a look at their names in the electoral rolls. If their name is located lacking, they may be able to observe again,” he added.
Lost votes: RTI reply comes to haunt EC in T'gana
![Lost votes: RTI reply comes to haunt EC in T'gana]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
February 26, 2019
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