51,000 names deleted from voters’ list in 1 year

DEHRADUN

: The election commission (EC) over the past one year had deleted around 51,000 names from the

voters

’ list. While EC officials say that this was done after verification of the electoral rolls, many people have alleged that they weren’t even aware that their names had been struck off the list, and that they should have been notified of this. Umesh Karanwal, a resident of Bengali Library Road in the city, said that he had voted in the previous elections but when he checked his name in the electoral list this year, he found his name missing. “I filed an RTI seeking an answer from the EC but they didn’t even explain why my name was taken off the list. I have been running after the government officials since then but to no avail. Since it is too late now to get my name included in the list. I won’t be able to exercise my franchise.”


As per data available with the EC,

Badrinath

assembly constituency tops the list of deleted names with more than 2,000 names removed from its voters’ list in 2018-19. In the four assembly constituencies of Dehradun city, more than 4,200 names were deleted.

Sometime back, Chetan Andolan, an organisation that works for the welfare of marginalised sections, had alleged that the names of Dalit and minority voters were missing from the electoral rolls in

Uttarakhand

. “Voters in Dharampur,

Raipur

and

Mussoorie

assembly constituencies were examined in the poll survey we conducted in January this year. Out of 298 voters who had voter IDs, it was found that around 12.5% were not present in the list. Of the 12.5%, 90% were either Dalits or minorities. If the same proportion applies across the state, more than 1,36,000 people among Dalits alone will not be able to vote in the upcoming elections,” said Shankar Gopalakrishnan, joint convenor, Chetna Andolann.

The EC officials however said that voters’ names are deleted after verification and if someone finds their name missing from the list, they can get their names enrolled online by filing an affidavit. “The electoral list is updated every year. We remove the names that we cannot verify. However, voters can get their names enrolled again just by filling one form,” said the state chief electoral officer Saujanya Jawalkar.