HYDERABAD: Hyderabad District Election Officer and GHMC Commissioner RV Karnan on Tuesday dismissed rumours that residents enrolling as voters in Hyderabad would lose access to welfare schemes in their native villages, urging people not to believe such misinformation.
Addressing a press conference on the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Karnan clarified that anyone residing in Hyderabad for at least six months is eligible to register as a voter. He said the choice of where to enrol was entirely an individual’s decision and had no bearing on eligibility for government welfare schemes.
Refuting claims that voter registration was linked to beneficiary selection for schemes such as Indiramma Housing and the earlier 2BHK scheme, he said there was no connection between voter enrolment and welfare benefits. He also clarified that voter registration was not linked to the address mentioned on an Aadhaar card.
Karnan said 2,60,593 voters had so far been identified as Absent, Shifted and Dead (ASD) voters.
Appealing to citizens not to wait until the deadline, he said Enumeration Forms (EFs) could be submitted till August 3, but early submission would provide sufficient time for corrections by the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) and facilitate digitisation.
He said stickers were being affixed to houses where Enumeration Forms had been collected. Hyderabad district has achieved around 43 per cent digitisation so far, with nearly 20.34 lakh Enumeration Forms digitised. Assembly constituencies such as Sanathnagar, Musheerabad, Amberpet and Malakpet have recorded relatively lower submission rates.
Karnan added that while applications for fresh voter registration were being accepted, the names of such applicants would not appear in the draft electoral roll.