PANAJI
The Goa Kannada Mahasangh has objected to the arbitrary deletion of Karnataka origin people, who have been staying in Goa for a long time, from the electoral roll.
The election commission during a revision has deleted around 25,000 voters in the first phase. A special summary revision started by the Chief Electoral office, Goa from November 1 will continue till November 30, 2021.
"Names of Karnataka people, who have shifted to Goa long back, should not be deleted from the list", said Goa Kannada Mahasangha President, Hanumantha Reddy Shiroor.
Shiroor said he has been receiving complaints from the Kannada people living in Goa that their names are being deleted from the list.
"Some people are staying for more than 10 years in the state, and they don't have house numbers as they are staying in rented spaces. These people should not be debarred from having election cards," said Shiroor.
"If the names are deleted arbitrarily, these people will be devoid of basic rights and other facilities," he said.
"As a citizen of India, it is our fundamental right to vote in the place where we live," said Shiroor.
Shiroor said that there are around 2 lakh voters who are originally from Goa, though there are 5 lakh Karnataka people staying in Goa, of which most of them are migrant labourers.
Shiroor said they have not presented any official memorandum as they don't want it to become a cause of conflict between locals and the Karnataka people.
The political front raising Goa for Goans with the slogan Revolutionary Goans has launched a drive to delete the names of alleged illegal voters registered in the State from the electoral roll.
Claiming the credit for the deletion of 25,000 names, the organisation has set a target to achieve 1 lakh non-Goan names from the voters' list.
RG has said that in one house number there are around 50 to 100 non-Goan names registered.
