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‘Virus victims may be alive on poll rolls due to note for vote effect’
The accuracy in updating electoral rolls may turn out to be a daunting task this year, feel officials as they are not sure whether families would furnish the details of the deceased members. The reason seems to be that the families might not want to lose the cash offered by parties during the polls.
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Vellore
Only an intensive house to house verification will reveal the truth and ensure authentic electoral rolls, officials revealed.
Another major challenge, according to officials, is going to be the tracing the families that have shifted their residences to other places due to various hardships caused by the coronavirus. “As the pandemic has claimed many lives and many have changed addresses, the voters list has to be updated to reflect the current reality,” said an official on condition of anonymity. Otherwise there would be a wide mismatch, the official added.
Usually, the verification job is done by teachers. But, this time, getting them to do it might be difficult due to fear of COVID-19 and the excess load of official work as even the admission process has started late. “With admissions just started in government schools, the academic work might get affected if teachers are drafted for door-to-door enumeration,” a senior official accepted.
SN Janardhanan, national executive member of the National Teachers Federation, said, “Teachers or any government servant cannot refuse the election work as it is part of their duty. So, they will have to accept it if they are asked to do so.” Regarding voters’ list, Vellore DMK MLA P Karthikeyan said, “the party district president Mohammed Saqhy will do the needful as he is the one who regularly attends such meetings.”
Saqhy said, “We will raise the issue when the draft electoral rolls work comes up in September.” Ranipet DML MLA R Gandhi said, “I plan to write to both Collector S Divyadarshini and TN chief electoral officer Sathyabrata Sahoo on this issue.”
By November, public can apply for correction in electoral roll
The Election Commission has announced the revision of voters’ roll as only seven months are there for the model code of conduct to come into force in the state. The work for the preparation of new voters’ roll will commence in two months and by November the public can start applying for corrections and new voter ID cards. The EC has issued a schedule for the voters roll preparation and chief electoral officer Sathyabrata Sahoo has instructed the collectors to make necessary arrangements for the voters roll revision, said a senior Revenue Department official. The preliminary work for integrated draft of electoral roll will be taken up by October and from November 16 to December 15, 2020, the applications from the public will be accepted, the official said.
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