August 7, 2015
- SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Clarifies that ‘not a single name has been removed’ till date
while talk of several voters being removed from electoral rolls for not seeding their voter ID card with Aadhaar card is doing the rounds, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) has sought to clarify that “not a single name has been removed” till date.
GHMC draws flak
The municipal corporation was the nodal agency responsible for the upkeep of electoral rolls and conduct of elections for the capital region and has been facing flak in the last few weeks over the alleged “deletion” of voters’ names.
GHMC Commissioner and Special Officer Somesh Kumar informed leaders from various political parties at a meeting held in the municipal head office on Thursday that the link of electoral rolls with Aadhaar numbers was taken up only on the directions of the Election Commission.
In fact, when compared to other metropolitan cities, Hyderabad’s exercise in linking Aadhaar with the voters’ list has been pretty fast with 44.4 per cent or 32,45,000 voters out of the 73.51 lakh voters already covered.
Exercise taken up in July
The civic body had taken up the verification exercise in the last week of July and daily, about 60,000 voter ID cards are being linked with Aadhaar numbers.
Similarly, data from other government departments like Civil Supplies too is being sourced to be added to the voter ID profile.
About 550 polling stations had shown less than 30 per cent Aadhaar link up, out of the 7,051 polling stations in the twin cities.
Therefore, special effort is underway to ensure the numbers are stacked up in these places and separate desks have been set up in each of the 18 circle offices for the purpose. Mr. Somesh Kumar claimed that booth officials had visited every house thrice yet whereabouts of 18 lakh voters was not known and 10 lakh voters’ houses were locked.
But the polling staff are gearing up to visit these 28 lakh voters once again and collect mobile phone numbers from the existing families living on the premises. He also assured that the names of voters not having seeding with Aadhaar due to shift, door lock and deaths would be put on the GHMC website, pasted outside the circle offices and would even be given to the representatives of political parties.
Compared to other metropolitan cities, Hyderabad’s exercise in linking Aadhaar with the voters’ list has been pretty fast