Official apathy added to woes, say voters

LUCKNOW: Narendra Mohan of Mashakganj area in the city had gone to cast his vote on Sunday but not finding his name in

voters’ list

was not the only disappointment he had to face. When Mohan took up the matter with the

booth level officer

(BLO), he was shouted at and pushed around by constables on duty. “Sotey raho tum jaise aaj tak sotey rahe” (Go and asleep as you have been sleeping till now) was what he got to hear while being sent away. In Maulviganj, 70-year-old Arshad Ali also could not find his name and

complained of misbehaviour

by constables.

Apart from not being able to vote, official apathy towards grievance redressal added to people’s woes. Citizens claimed that names of voters from entire localities and apartments were missing from list and taking up the matter with officials proved no good.

Anshu, a resident of Mall Avenue, could not find her name after searching for over an hour at the model booth. When she asked district magistrate (DM) Kaushal Raj Sharma who had come on inspection, he said , “Ab jagrook ho rahe ho” (You are becoming aware now). He told Anshu that the voter list for assembly polls and civic polls is different. But Anshu said that she had voted last in 2012 too. Former state minister Naresh Chandra claimed that along with his family, 37 other homes in sector A, Aliganj could not cast their vote. “The residents include a former additional district general of police and retired judges. But our names were not in the list. I have been voting for 55 years,” said Chandra.

Seema Kidwai, a resident of sector C, Special Press Colony, Aliganj, said, “Voters of an entire row of houses did not have their names in list. The booth agents and officers had a casual approach and could not help.” A resident of Metro City apartments, Paper Mill Colony road, Saurabh Agarwal claimed that around 300 residents were denied voting right. “We took up the matter up with booth officers and even sector magistrate but no one had a clue as to what had happened,” he said. Over 50 residents at Eldeco apartments on Kursi road also suffered the same fate, claimed Sohail Akhtar.

(With inputs from Urooj Khan)

Lawyer lodges complaint with SEC
Taking into account the large number of anomalies in civic poll voter list, lawyer Mohammad Haider, on Monday submitted a complaint to the State Election Commission (SEC) stating that the incident violates the statutory and legal right of citizens. In his four page complaint, referring to section 39 (4) of the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Coporation Act of 1959, Haider said that the SEC is duty bound to adopt the assembly election roll for the time being in force in relation to an area of that ward. “Furthermore, section 42 of the Act ensures the right to vote for citizens whose name has been registered as a voter in the electoral rolls of the said ward. The process to check name on the SEC, as against the Election Commission of India website, is a tedious process with mobile number being asked for every entry,” said Haider.