Hyderabad: Old City people angry as voter slips delayed

Charminar: Even as the GHMC election is scheduled on Tuesday, several people are yet to receive voting slips in parts of the Old City. There are around 40 divisions in the southern part of the city, but polling staff was able to complete only 40 per cent of the distribution work in many areas.

It is learnt that in Chawni, Akberbagh, Old Malakpet, Santoshnagar, Yakutpura, Rein Bazaar, Bahadurpura, Charminar, Pathergatti, Shalibanda, Lal Darwaza, Shamheergunj, Kishanbagh, Hafizbaba Nagar, Falaknuma, Chandrayangutta, Riyasathanagar, Talabkatta and in several others areas, voters did not receive the slips by evening.

Due to eleventh hour distribution work many voters from the Old City are most likely to avoid taking part in the election process. The polling staff was seen carrying bundles of slips on their two-wheelers, a day before the polling day.

"With thousands of voter slips, it was a tedious task on the part of the polling staff. They were searching for houses with the help of door numbers mentioned in the slips, asking locals about the details," said Mohammed Khader, septuagenarian and a resident of Chawni, who came to receive the voter slips.

When asked, a polling staffer said a group of five GHMC sanitation workers were deployed for the distribution of voter slips and they remained on field since November 25. "Till now hardly 40 per cent of slips were distributed and still we are identifying the door numbers," he added.

A poll observer said "the staff who are deployed for the distribution do not have any information regarding the division, area, door numbers and voter slips. This is a failure on the part of the authorities." "I did not receive voter slips for six of my family till now.

They themselves are identifying their voter slips from the bundles brought by the polling staff. Do not know if there are any duplicates and how it impacts on polling day," he noted.

Some voters were shocked to find their ballots were transferred to other polling booths. In some houses, family members are allotted different booths, says a shocked businessman K Venkatesh.