Civic polls: MAUD babus bogged down with cases of voter deletions
Court cases over voter deletions surface during municipal poll preparations
Hyderabad: Even as the State Election Commission (SEC) has been making preparations for the municipal elections in the state, the officials in the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department are irked by cases filed locally as they are visiting courts to file counters on the cases filed in the urban local bodies.
According to official sources, as many as 45 cases were filed in the court so far challenging the deletion of votes and mistakes in the voters’ list in the ULBs. Sources said that the cases were pertaining to deletion of votes of individuals and mistakes cropping up in the names of the voters and the names of spouses. On an average two to three cases were been filed in the ULBs and this has made the officials involved in the election procedure to visit court to file counters.
A senior official, who did not want to be quoted, said that there is no big issue for the citizens to approach court if their name is missing from the voters’ list. The official said that the citizen can approach the local BLO (booth level officer) and file an application taking Form 6 for entry into the voters’ list. If there are any corrections they can submit an application by filling Form 8. The citizens can apply till the nominations are filed because there will be a supplementary voters’ list aligned with the main list hence there will be no problem for the voters, the official added. Replying to a question, the official said that some may file cases with the intention to stall the process.
Meanwhile, the SEC has been busy with preparations for the conduct of the civic elections. The Commission completed the training to masters of trainers (MoTs) on January 19. In turn these masters of trainers have trained the training of trainers (ToTs), who in turn have imparted training to zonal officers, returning officers, assistant returning officers, presiding officers, assistant presiding officers and counting staff in the districts on January 21.
The SEC also reviewed arrangements, including ballot boxes, responsibilities of polling staff, and mapping of voters in the T-Poll App, for elections to the municipalities and corporations.
