BBMP chief checks voter list at doorsteps

BENGALURU:  Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) chief commissioner Tushar Girinath, who is also the district election officer, personally went door-to-door at Govindaraja Nagar assembly segment and checked the voters’ list on Wednesday.

Coming in the wake of the voter data tampering controversy involving the NGO Chilume and some BBMP revenue officials at Shivajinagar, Chickpete and Mahadevpura, the exercise aims to restore faith in the Palike’s election preparation process.

The commissioner approached residents and checked if their names were left out from the draft voter list, or if they were added wrongly, and other errors. He also collected information from the citizens.
Girinath later said booth level officers and supervisors were not involved in the revision of the voter list, and that he visited house to house to find out whether the revision of the voter list was correct. The commissioner was accompanied by Additional District Election Officer Jagdish Naik, Assistant Commissioner (Election) Umesh and other senior officials.

Meanwhile, Special Officer Ajay Nagabhushan, who held a meeting with representatives from political parties with regard to objections and claims regarding the voter draft list, was requested by them to extend the date of checking for a few more days. As per the State Election Commission, the date for claims and objections to Mahadevpura, Shivajinagar and  Chickpet was extended till December 24.

Babu Gowda, Congress Block President of Marathalli, said, “As the exercise of checking for deleted names is a big task, we requested the officials to extend the date for claims and objections for a few more days here. The officials said they will talk to higher officials regarding the request as they don’t have the powers to do so.”