Eliminate errors in voters list: Congress

Hyderabad: With a view to ensure that votes of party supporters are not deleted from the voters’ lists, the Congress has taken up an awareness programme among the leaders and workers of the party across the State.

The party’s Election Commission Coordination Committee chairman and former Minister Marri Shashidhar Reddy has been touring the districts on creating awareness on the revision of voters’ lists.

Shashidhar Reddy has been meeting party leaders and workers and has been explaining them about the voters’ list revision and the possible irregularities the ruling party leaders may indulge in. He has reportedly exhorted the party workers to check the voters’ lists thoroughly so that names of the party supporters are not deleted.

Speaking to The Hans India, Shashidhar Reddy said he had toured old combined Adilabad and Karimnagar districts as part of his efforts to create awareness among the party leaders. He said he had also tried to spread the message on voters’ lists through media.

He said gross irregularities had been found in special summery revision of the voters’ lists.
In many of the booths, officials were not present, and the voters’ list was not demonstrated. Though an RDO of Karimnagar district was given award for better work in the preparation of voters’ lists, large scale violations had been found in his area, he said.

Shashidhar Reddy said Collector of a district was ignorant of the revision of voters’ lists and the official said the voters’ list would be revised on the objections received till December 15, 2017. In fact, according to new schedule, objections have to be accepted till February 15 this year. This showed the lack of seriousness among the officials, he said.

He said the party leaders were told to keep an eye on the deletion of votes. He said in 2015, in Sanathnagar constituency, names of hundreds of voters had been deleted. He made it clear that if the name of voter was deleted, notices should be issued to the concerned official. He said the party leaders had been told to check whether the names had been deleted without following due procedure.

He said in most of the polling booths, the staff was not trained in using the tabs to revise the voters’ lists. In many areas, Anganwadi workers had been entrusted with the revision through tabs, who had no knowledge of operating them.

As just five or six votes make a lot of difference in the result of the election to a ward member, the party is serious about addition and deletion of names, it is understood. It wants to ensure that names of party supporters are included in the lists.