The Election Commission has pulled up district election officers (DEOs) for failing to upload documents related to voters whose hearings had already been completed, reminding them that further delay would deprive ineligible voters of the opportunities to appeal before the authorities.
The EC, sources said, received reports that hearings of nearly 70 lakh voters — both unmapped and those with logical discrepancies — had already been completed. But till Friday night, the system showed that hearings of only 30 lakh voters had
been completed.
“More surprisingly, documents of only about 10 lakh voters have been uploaded. These are documents of voters whose hearings have been completed. However, the uploading of the remaining 20 lakh voters’ documents has been withheld purposefully. The DEOs have been asked to upload all pending documents by January 26,” said a senior EC official.
Another official said that the stern message was sent to the DEOs, who are district magistrates, because the EC felt that the documents were being held back only to upload them at the last moment, so that the observers didn’t get enough time to check the papers before the publication of the final electoral rolls.
According to the procedure, the AEROs and EROs, who were conducting the hearings, would upload the documents submitted by voters after the hearings.
Once the documents are uploaded, the DEOs will verify the same by sending them to the issuing authorities. Once the documents are verified, the special roll observers appointed in the districts will scrutinise the approved documents and recommend whether to enrol the voter in the rolls or exclude them by citing reasons for the decision.
Based on the recommendations of the special roll observers, the ERO would dispose of the cases.
“If the documents are uploaded at the last minute, the excluded voters will miss a chance to appeal before the competent authorities. The DEOs should ensure that the EROs and AEROs upload the pending documents by January 26, and then the documents would have to be uploaded on the same day of hearings for the benefit of the voters,” a poll panel official said.
The sources said that if a voter was excluded, he or she would get a notice citing the reason for the exclusion.
“If unsatisfied with the decision, the voter can appeal before the DEO against the decision. If the DEO’s decision also fails to satisfy the voter, he or she can appeal for the second time before the CEO. If the documents are rejected at the last minute, the voter will not get the chance to appeal twice before the competent authorities,” said an official.
The excluded voters will get a chance to appeal before the competent authorities till February 7, the last date for hearing and verification of documents.
An EC official said that if there were a plan to upload documents and verify them at the last minute to deny the special roll observers enough time to check those and allow all voters to make it to the rolls because of time constraints, it would be a wrong idea.
“The EC received information that the forms of the voters who failed to produce the required papers were not being uploaded. If lakhs of forms are uploaded at the last minute, to give little time to the roll observers to check them, the plan would not work,” said a bureaucrat.
He said that until the EC was satisfied with the procedure of scrutinising all the documents by the special roll observers and then the CEO vetting all the disposed of cases, final rolls would not be published, irrespective of the last date mentioned in
the notification.
The sources said that the delaying tactics were also witnessed during the enumeration phase.
“In several districts, the enumeration forms of dead, shifted, absent or duplicate voters were held up till the last date, expecting that someone would come up and fill up the forms. It was evident that some forms of such voters were uploaded by the BLOs under pressure from political leaders when it came to light that about 3.5 lakh unmapped voters did not appear for hearings,” said an official.