Photo ID cards continue to elude 1.32 lakh voters in SCB

Hyderabad: Following the old Cantonment British era norms for the elections, even this year around 1.32 lakh voters will have to cast their votes without electronic photo identity cards (EPICs). Voters fear that, deprived of EPICs, there may be a chance of impersonations of voters as the same situation occurred in 2015.

Locals pointed out that when the photo electoral rolls is been implemented by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for both Assembly and Lok Sabha elections then why is the Ministry of Defence (MoD) not implementing the same for Cantonment Board elections? Election rules in Cantonment are not as per the norms of the Election Commission of India.

In 2015 during the Cantonment Board electionsa lot of confusion was created as the Cantonment followed the same old method of elections and not the single voter list method.

"Unfortunately, the single voter ID card method is not applicable in the Cantonment. The electoral rolls only have names of voters of all eight civilian wards, without their photos. The enrolled voters have to visit the polling station, along with ID proofs, prescribed by the election authorities. The Cantonment residents are still being ruled in the British era rules," said Jitender Surana, All India Cantonments Residents Owner Welfare Association.

"Why are the ECI norms not been followed in the Cantonment? questioned Suresh, a resident of SCB and added that even after urging the SCB officers to introduce EPICs to cast their votes on the lines of neighboring GHMC, all fell in deaf ears.

"Even single resident who is eligible for casting vote in the SCB do not has electronic photo identity card. We also submitted many representations to the officials concerned in past regarding the issue, but no further steps were taken to follow the EPIC method of voting," he added. According to electoral rolls issued in September 2022, there are 1.32 lakh voters in the Cantonment. Ward -V (Mahendra Hills) has the highest number of voters with 22,919, while ward-II (Rasoolpura) has the lowest of 7,872 voters. Nearly 30,000 voters have lost their right to vote for allegedly encroaching upon defence land.