Troubles haunt online voter applicants

Vijayawada: Online voter registration is not hassle-free as Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is asking for more documents from the applicants to clear their names. Three deputy tahsildars from revenue department have been monitoring the voter registration exercise of three Assembly constituencies. They have been working under the direct supervision of a VMC official. Many candidates, who wish to register their names as voters online, have to pay a visit to the VMC as they had to submit the documentation as desired by the VMC.

Form 6 need to be filled online for issue of photo identity voter card. The applicant should submit his details which include photograph, age proof and address proof. Some of the applicants get a phone call from VMC seeking documents other than they submitted.

They need to go to the VMC and submit the documents. The same problem was reported by a few applicants who wanted their address to be changed in form 8A. The poor and backward class people, who applied online, have been forced to go to VMC and convince the officials to establish their presence in particular areas.

When contacted, the officials said everything is going smoothly in connection with online applications except that they had been receiving more than one form with corrections. “We have been selecting the corrected form from them and clearing at the earliest,” said an official.

“The registration online is simple and easy. But local officials are making it complex on the pretext of one or other reason,” complained a voter on condition of anonymity. According to official information, online voter registrations are more in Vijayawada East Assembly constituency with an average of 200 applications received every month. The number of applications received by field staff is comparatively lesser here.

By Noor Shaik