HYDERABAD: Even as the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) is gearing up to publish the final list of voters on December 6 ahead of the board elections in January, people are complaining of lack of information on the enrolment programme.
It appears the SCB has completed the process of preparing the voters’ list without creating awareness on the deadline for voters’ enrolment. According to the election programme announced by the SCB, November 20 was the last date for inclusion of names in the rolls. Objections relating to applications have to be made by November 26 and hearing on the same will be conducted from December 1 to 3.
But many do not even know about the enrolment conducted by the SCB. The lack of awareness is so glaring that according to SCB officials, just 12,000 have applied for enrolling as voters in all the eight wards! Just one person attended the hearing on objections related to voters’ enrolment on Monday.
“I have a vote in the SCB elections and I wanted to enrol my wife’s name too. Though leaders have started campaigning and election fever has gripped the locality, I was shocked to know voter enrolment has already been completed and now there is no chance for new voters,” said M Sunil Kumar, a resident of Bapujinagar in Ward No 1.
Similar complaints are pouring in from the other wards too. “There was no publicity. Many people do not know how officials prepared the voters’ list which is being displayed on the board’s website now. As a result, the voters’ number has decreased in many localities. For instance, while there were 25,000 votes in Ward 2 during last elections, now there are just 20,507 according to official statistics of the SCB,” explained S Keshava Reddy, a former ward member, who is also contesting the election this time.