Revision of electoral rolls begins today

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

CHENNAI, NOV. 4. The special drive for revision of electoral rolls, beginning on Monday, has been appreciated by voters. However, there are certain voices of skepticism whether the exercise will eliminate all the ``gross irregularities'' in the rolls, found during the Assembly and local bodies polls.

The Consumer Council of India, welcoming the door-to-door enumeration, says officials concerned should monitor execution closely to avoid discrepancies, as experienced during the last 100 per cent verification.

Demanding the old rolls be scrapped, the council is of the view that residents welfare associations will be more than willing to cooperate with the enumerators to set the records right.

The Federation of Civic and Welfare Associations of Pallavapuram Municipality feels that a special emphasis should be given to carry out the correction of names and data in the voter list as well as electors photo identity cards.

The tenure of the enumeration be extended by two months so that the entire process is carried out smoothly. Their concerns come in the wake of experiences of several people, who could not vote in the Assembly or in the local bodies polls. Several complaints of missing names were received from voters all over the city.

The names were missing from the rolls in Kondungaiyur, Shenoy Nagar, Anna Nagar, Kilpauk, Tiruvanmiyur, Villivakkam and Adyar. Similar complaints were received from Pallavaram, Alandur, Ambattur, Madhavaram and other suburbs.

Mr. J. N. Iyer, Additional Chief Electrical Engineer of Railways, a resident of Ayanavaram, said his name and his wife's were missing in the electoral rolls during the local bodies elections though he had voted in the Assembly elections. Both had EPIC.

Given the strenuous process in doorstep enumeration, the staff involved in the drive might have resorted to ``short-cut methods'', official sources say.

This time, households will be given copies of record of enumeration that will have to be countersigned by the head of each family. Moreover, they will have to visit each household which was locked and drop a copy of Form 4 (letter of request) for inclusion in the rolls.

The system adopted during the intensive revision has left no room for stuffing or bulk inclusion, usually done by political parties, the officials say.

Now, a door-to-door enumeration will be done and the voters in each house will have to produce a document to establish proof of residence.

The objective of the intensive revision is to correct the mistakes in earlier rolls, update the existing ones and include the names of those omitted from previous rolls. As a sequel, the Election Commission has also planned to conduct an EPIC programme in March, covering the rest of the voters who have not been covered in earlier campaigns.

During the enumeration itself, records of mistakes in the EPIC and the status of delivery will be obtained. Necessary corrections will be carried out during the EPIC programme later.

This, the officials say, was an attempt to synchronise the EPIC list with the electoral rolls for smoother conduct of polls. The draft rolls will be published on January 16 next year and the final rolls on March 25.

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