MARGAO
Election Commission of India’s Electoral Roll Observer for South Goa district, Sandeep Jacques, IAS, has underscored the need for the inclusion of voters rather than deleting names and then making the voters come again to register their names on the electoral rolls.
Jacques later told the media that he will flag to the Chief Electoral Officer, Goa the issues and apprehensions raised by the political parties. He told the district election officials during a review meeting of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise to be considerate and see how best they can help the voters, while admitting that the officials may face a systemic problem where notices are getting generated for people who are well known.
Saying that the exercise, by and large, is going on well, he, however, stressed the need for the inclusion of voters during the mapping process instead of deleting the names.
When the South District Electoral Officer, Egna Cleetus, IAS, pointed out that around 24,487 verification forms are pending for more than five days, Jacques suggested that the verification of documents be expedited if the concerned authorities are within the State. “If the authorities hail from within the State, they need to expedite the verification of documents, including birth certificates,” he said.
He added: “I do not know the guidelines laid down by the CEO, but the system ought to have been presumptive that the document is genuine if proved otherwise. If the verification does not come within five days, it should be deemed to be genuine. The authorities within the State should be nudged to expedite the process. You cannot wait in perpetuity.”
The District Electoral Officer replied, saying her office has taken weekly review meetings and formed a WhatsApp group, besides appointing department-wise nodal officials to expedite the process.
While complimenting the District Electoral Officer and her team for doing a "good job by and large", Jacques urged the Electoral Officer to continue the job and allay the apprehensions raised by the political parties. “Try to sort out the issues raised by the political parties to ensure transparency and uniformity,” he added.
Jacques later told the media that his job as the ECI observer is to observe the exercise and flag the issues raised by the political parties with the CEO to take care of the grievances.
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Cong flags bulk applications by BJP BLAs in roll revision
MARGAO: Representatives of the Congress party on Tuesday drew the attention of the ECI Roll Observer to the fact that ruling party BLAs are submitting applications in bulk for the inclusion of names in the electoral rolls when the process ought to be done by filling in Form 7.
Congress representative Savio Coutinho questioned how the ruling party is being given a "preferential treatment".
“This treatment is not given to the BLAs of other parties. We have highlighted one case wherein a BLA of the ruling party submitted a consolidated list containing 70 forms for inclusion,” Coutinho said.
Coutinho further said that he has drawn the attention of Sandeep Jacques to how ruling BLAs are submitting claims and objections against residents who are present in their houses by showing them as permanently shifted.
“This is the modus operandi adopted by the ruling party to ensure that once the names are deleted, notices will be served on the voters for a hearing. If they don’t come to the hearing, their names will be deleted. They are unnecessarily putting the voters to inconvenience,” he added.
