People up the ante against laymen BLOs in Rajendra Nagar

Rangareddy: Finding fault with the way the elections are being conducted with the help of alleged laymen Booth Level Officers and staff, the people in Rajendra Nagar under Rangareddy district are now up their ante against local BLOs and seeking action against discrepancies in enrolments and duplication of voter information slips.

Out of a total number of 5,81,937 enrolled voters, merely 3,24,917 cast their votes which calculates 55.83 per cent voting in Rajendra Nagar and saw a straight fourth-time victory of BRS candidate T Prakash Goud.

However, complaints like the circulation of duplicate voter lists and distribution of multiple voter information slips just a day ahead of the polling are common in most of the areas of Rajendra Nagar, a constituency that shares the boundaries with many densely populated areas of Hyderabad district.

Pointing fingers at local BLOs against duplication of voter slips, the people say local election staff are inefficient in carrying out their duties properly and work in cahoots with the local leaders.

“The local election staff mainly consists of property tax collectors from concerned revenue wing in municipalities and GHMC circles. They serve as BLOs in their respective areas and some of them have been working as routine players for over a decade. They never changed in the last 20 years and so did the sitting MLA,” felt Mahender, a resident of Rajendra Nagar.

“Generally, these BLOs work on the behest of local political activists and are completely in thrall of their political boss. These BLOs never go for field inspections physically and simply approve or decline the applications of voters at the behest of political activists. BLOs and other staff members get paid through the taxpayers' pocket but largely work for politicians to further their interest,” said Syed Shoukat Ali, a resident of Shastripuram colony.

Discrepancies in voter lists and distribution of voter information slips were reported from almost all the areas in Rajendra Nagar during the recently held elections.

Affirming the same, Srikant Swami, ward Councilor from Manikonda municipality said, “I was quite surprised when I got two voter information slips with different polling stations on my name just a day ahead of the polling recently.”

“I have raised the issue of duplicate voter lists and discrepancies in the distribution of voter slips in an area under Manikonda municipality with the Election Commission as well as the Collector of Rangareddy," he said adding that "the election authorities should take appropriate action against the BLOs found negligent or connived with politicians."

Apart from this, he said, there are non-local workers and watchmen of several apartments in Manikonda who are enrolled as voters in both the Telugu States.

“These people are often found casting votes here in Manikonda municipality despite having enrolled in their native places in Andhra Pradesh. More disappointing is the trend of throwing parties by the political leaders to woo the voters at the time of election as part of their ‘Note for Vote’ policy," blames Srikant.