28,000 lose voting rights in Secunderabad Cantonment Board

Secunderabad: About 28,123 out of 1, 91,808 voters in Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) will not be able to cast their vote. Officials said that as per the Supreme Court order people who have been residing in encroached central government lands have been removed from the list. In the meanwhile, the board announced that 30 July would be the deadline for any voter to file any claim or objection with regards to the voters list.

Addressing the media on Wednesday, Chief Executive Officer of SCB SVR Chandrashekar said,” Following the Supreme Court order given to all 62 Cantonments, a detailed survey was conducted and then the voters list was made by removing all encroachers within SCB limits, in specific this voter list is only for SCB elections and will not be applicable for Assembly elections where the total 1,91,808 voters can vote.” Adding, he said that any voter can submit a form to claim that their name is not included in the voter list, the SCB will take appropriate step whether to include the name or not after the ground work.

Among the eight wards in SCB, the most effected is ward no 2 where around 17687 voters were removed on lines of encroachments and the remaining ward no 1: 1108, ward no 3: 3037, ward no 4: 519, ward no 2229, ward no 6: 965, ward no 7: 1585, ward no 8: 993. With an intention to ensure smooth polling this year, the SCB organised 190 polling booths and ensured that voter do not travel more than 2km to caste the vote. In order to control the crowd at each pooling booth, not more than 1200 voters can vote at each pooling booth. If in case there are new enrolments the SCB will form a new pooling booth.