Protest over move to delete 200 voters from list

Meerut: Protest erupted in Ameenabad Bada Gaon in Meerut district on Monday after villagers found out that a man associated with BJP had submitted pre-filled ‘Form 7' to the Booth Level Officer (BLO) for deletion of at least 200 names, mostly from the minority community, from the voter list in the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work.Villagers told TOI that nearly 200 voters were targeted and around 60 living persons were shown as dead. They said printed (pre-filled) Form-7 containing voters' names and EPIC numbers are arbitrarily filled and submitted to get the names of Muslim voters removed from the voter lists.Meerut district magistrate V K Singh told TOI, "It is not known from where BLOs procured Form 7 for voter deletion. They (BLOs) gathered people under a ‘conspiracy'. A probe has been ordered. I want to assure that no valid votes will be deleted."Ameenabad falls under Kithore constituency, represented by Samajwadi Party MLA Shahid Manzoor. The villagers protested at the Ameenabad primary school when they reached the booth for corrections under the SIR process. A video of the protest later went viral on social media.Former village pradhan Talib Chaudhary told TOI, "Manveer, a villager associated with BJP, gave at least 200 ‘Form 7' to the BLO, requesting them to remove the names. Meanwhile, I received the information and approached the BLO to see the forms. To my shock, the proposed names are cited as either migrated or dead, but these people are alive and living in the village.""We then staged a protest, following which the BLO said no valid voters will be removed," Chaudhary said. BLO Mohd Zafar, an assistant teacher at Ameenabad primary school, told TOI, "Manveer gave me the forms, and when I asked for his Aadhaar card, he refused. I have assured the villagers that no valid votes will be deleted."TOI tried to contact Manveer for his side of the story, but he was not available for comment.TOI visited Ameenabad on Monday and spoke to members of the minority community. Mohd Ayaz, a local villager, told TOI, "I was shown as migrated in the SIR form. When I was informed that it was Manveer who did this, I confronted him, but he alleged that the BLO did it."