SRIKAKULAM: In a shocking incident, 17 minors, including school students, are found to have cast their votes in the elections held on April 11 at Sangam village in Vangara mandal, which falls under the Rajam Assembly segment in the district. The issue came to light after a local lodged a complaint with the District Election Officer (DEO) and District Collector J Nivas a few days ago. Immediately, Nivas directed the returning officer (RO) concerned to investigate the matter.
Following this, a team of revenue officials conducted an investigation and submitted a preliminary report to the Collector, according to Rajam Assembly segment Returning Officer G Jayadevi. As per the compliant, 25 minors voted on the polling day in the village. However, the official team found that one name was repeated in the electoral list. Of the remaining 24 names, two were majors and addresses of three were missing, while the remaining were identified as minors.
Although the inquiry is underway, the team found that all 19 minors, all from Sangam, were granted Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC). After this, the revenue officials went to the village to verify records relating to their date of birth and found that 17 of them had voted on the polling day.
Neither the polling officials nor the party agents raised any objection to this at the polling station.
When the polling officer was questioned, he said, “We allowed them after verifying the proof they (the minors) had submitted.”
The million dollar question worrying senior officials is how could the minors get voter cards and cast vote without the ‘support’ of issuing authorities? District Collect Nivas told TNIE that he had ordered an inquiry into the matter. “The inquiry report, submitted to the RO, has been forwarded to the Chief Election Commissioner for his perusal. Action will be taken once the CEC takes a decision.”