No role for district admn in service votes: Collector

Visakhapatnam: Collector and Election Returning Officer K Bhaskar informed that a total of 6,943 service voters' right to vote was uploaded in Electronic Transfer Postal Ballot System on March 30 only. The service ballots have been uploaded by the respective constituency returning officers.

The administration as per the Election Commission of India rules and regulations, the service ballots have to be distributed by the unit commanding officer and if the person has not received his service ballot, the voter should call the unit commanding officer for his right, Bhaskar said.

YSR Congress Party Bheemili MLA contestant M Srinivasa Rao along with a group of ex-servicemen met Collector and informed that a total of 1,199 service voters of Bheemili constituency have not got their service ballot.

While detailing on the issue, Bhaskar said that for the first time, the ECI introduced Electronic Transfer Postal Ballot System for defence persons who are working at various locations in the country. The persons who applied for their right, applied for service ballot and their details have available in the official portal.

The administration has downloaded the service voters lists from the official portal only. Later, the service votes uploaded assembly constituency wise. According to the rules and regulations, the unit commanding officer has to distribute the voters to persons. If, a person not gets vote, the voter should meet the unit commanding officer to cast the vote.

In the entire procedure, there is no role of district administration or election staff. However, the leaders, who are not having knowledge about the service votes levelling allegations on the administration, the collector lamented.