TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: An increasing number of government servants are leaving the state for a better life and huge earnings in foreign nations, the Election Commission said on Tuesday. The EC said that around 300 to 500 government servants had obtained foreign nationality and migrated during the financial year 2012-13.
It stated that they were among over 2200 people who have obtained foreign nationality and the office is in process of deleting their names from the voters list in the state.
A large number of government servants are obtaining foreign nationality and passports, Joint Chief Electoral officer Narayan Navti told reporters on Tuesday. Navti said that the list has been forwarded to the electoral registration officer (ERO) for necessary action. The list, however, does not include the names of Superintendent of Police Jose Allen D’Sa, Police Inspector Edwin Colaco, and legislators Glen Ticlo, Caitano Silva as the matter is sub judice, he said.
A local resident had filed a petition in the High Court asking for an FIR (first information report) to be filed against two police officers, two legislators, 43 advocates, six persons working under the High Court and 500 other persons working or retired in government departments for having dual citizenship and being a threat to national security.
“There is no such concept as dual citizenship. If the person has obtained foreign nationality then he cannot be Indian,” Navti explained.
From 2011 till February 2013, over 1,00,119 names were deleted from the voters’ list for acquiring Portuguese nationality.
Earlier, Chief Electoral Officer Keshav Chandra said that total 29,400 names would be deleted from the electoral roll for the year, as the number does not match with the estimated figure of CEO and the census. The list also includes 2200 voters.
As per the number of electors enrolled in the roll, the figure is 10,67,637 while the estimated electoral population as per census is 10,38,211.
“The lists include names of those voters who do not exist or have died or have changed their nationality or have registered names twice. All the names would be deleted during the month long Special Summary Revision 2014, beginning from today,” he said.
He also said that over 15000 names of female voters have been deleted in last one year and more will be deleted as the ratio per thousand male as per the electoral roll does not match with the census ratio.
As per the electoral roll the female voters ratio is 997 per thousand male, while as per census the ratio is 973 per thousand male. The CEO is also set to include another 25,000 voters who have completed 18 years.
