Pilerne forum faults voter enrollment procedure
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, AUG 3
Pilerne Citizens Forum (PCF) today exposed taluka mamlatdars’ act of disobeying the guidelines given by Election Commission of India (ECI) while revising the electoral rolls in the state.
According to the data collected by PCF under Right to Information (RTI) Act; it is clear that in Goa the procedure adopted for the enrollment of names in the electoral roll is completely different from the guidelines prescribed by ECI.
“During the last election we came to know that most of the names enrolled in the election cards are of migrants and not the residence of Pilerne or Goa. Hence a letter was written to the ECI asking to provide details of the actual procedure and guidelines required to follow while adding a person’s name in the electoral roll,” PCF President Prakash Bandodkar told reporters.
“Subsequently, a letter was forwarded to all the eleven taluka’s asking for the same,” he added.
“And surprisingly, we came to know from their replies that all the eleven taluka’s are following guidelines different from ECI to enroll new names or shift the name from one constituency to another,” PCF’s legal advisor Yatish Naik said.
Naik said that ten out of eleven mamlatdars responded to their queries and all were found following procedures which were different from the guidelines recommended by ECI.
“Also, each mamlatdar differed with other in the procedure complicating the matter further,” he said.
For example, Naik said, as per ECI a birth certificate of a person concerned can be considered as only proof while adding the name in the list.
“Whereas, as per our mamlatdars ration card or leaving certificate is acceptable,” Naik said.
Moreover, Joint Election Commissioner’s office at Altinho Panjim does not even have a copy of the prescribed guidelines required to be followed vis-à-vis change or addition in the electoral rolls.
“The applicant sought by the applicant is not held by this office,” a reply by Joint Election Commissioner’s office reads. (Probably the Joint Election Commissioner wanted to say that he doesn’t have a copy of the prescribed guidelines.)
PCF has filed a complaint with ECI by attaching all the documents obtained under RTI seeking their intervention in the matter. It is also learnt that the same has been forwarded to office of the Joint Election Commissioner of India.
“We also demand the State government and the Election Commission of Goa to intervene in this serious matter at the earliest to investigate and rectify the blatant irregularities,” he said.
Failure to which, the forum might approach High Court.
