the goan I network
MARGAO
He also sought to allay apprehensions over the voting by the army men in the just concluded Assembly election, saying elaborate procedure was complied with before enrolling them as voters.
The District Collector told The Goan that the election authorities had registered the army men as voters only after complying with the election rules in force. “Most of these voters are cadets who are housed within the camp. They stay in the barracks. Once the record officer, normally the commandant, who is also the nodal officer, certifies that these people have been staying inside for six months, we take it as face value and register them as voter. Moreover, the BLOs had certified the presence of these voters,”
he said.
Replying to a question, Swapnil said that the election authorities had received around 820 for applications for enrollment, of which around 600 forms were accepted since they met all the required provisions of law. “The nodal officer had taken the responsibility to send the forms stating that the applicants have fulfilled the six month criteria,” he said.
Replying to a question, the district collector said that in the case of new cadets, they have given the undertaking that they have not registered themselves as voters in any other part of the country. However, in the case of those who had already enrolled themselves as voters, they had applied for the cancellation of forms, he added.
“These voters had applied in form 6 & for application as well as cancellation. Accordingly, we had forwarded their names to the district collector in their native states for cancellation of their names. It was only after confirmation came that their names were deleted from the electoral list in their natives states that they were included in the elector roll in Navelim constituency,” the collector explained.
