After former Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash said that he and his wife had been asked by the Election Commission to prove their eligibility during the special revision of electoral rolls in Goa, the poll panel clarified on Monday that the enumeration forms submitted by the retired officer were missing mandatory information, reported PTI.
Prakash, who settled in Goa after retirement, has been marked “unmapped” on the draft rolls that were published on December 16, according to The Indian Express.
The state has over 1.8 lakh “unmapped” voters. These are persons whose names appear on the draft voter list but were not found on the 2002 rolls, when the last special intensive revision was held. They will have to attend hearings with relevant documents to retain their name on the final voter list that is due to be published on February 14.
On Sunday, Prakash said that he and his wife, Kumkum, had received notices from the Election Commission, despite a booth-level officer visiting their home thrice. The retired officer said that the BLO had not asked for additional information during the enumeration phase.
The 82-year-old also highlighted that he and his wife, 78, have been asked to appear before Election Commission officials on two different dates at a location 18 km away from their residence.
In a post on Monday, Prakash said that the poll body could consider revising the form for the process to capture more relevant information, such as “occupation” and “location at last SIR”.
He also suggested that the Election Commission employ “full-time, fully trained youth as BLOs” to better interact with citizens and raise awareness.
On Monday, the Election Commission said that the enumeration forms submitted by Prakash “did not contain the mandatory particulars relating to the previous SIR”, including the name of the elector, the electors’s photo identity card number, the name of the relative, the name and number of the Assembly Constituency, part number and serial number in the electoral roll, reported PTI.
These discrepancies meant the electoral officials were unable to establish an automatic linkage between the submitted enumeration form and the existing electoral roll database, said Electoral Registration Officer Medora Ermomilla D'Costa.
Apart from the unmapped voters, more than 1 lakh names were deleted from the draft electoral rolls in Goa after being marked dead, shifted or absent.
Besides Goa, the special intensive revision of electoral rolls is underway in 11 other states and Union Territories.
In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.
Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll.
Also read: Single mother, BJP MLA, Marwari trader: The Bengal voters on EC’s SIR radar
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