KASARGOD: The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) has asked the Collector and District Electoral Officer to initiate action against a booth level officer (BLO) who allegedly kept 49 first-time voters out of the voting list, without reasons.Commission member K Mohan Kumar said the BLO is accused of rejecting 49 applications without verification in booth 71 (Hidayatnagar) at Kadambar in the Manjeshwaram Assembly segment.
“The District Electoral Officer and the taluk electoral officer should go through the complaint and take action against the BLO,” the Commission said. Harsha, a clerk in Government High School, Uppala, is the booth level officer of Hidayatnagar booth (71). The booth is in the same school. Abdul Rahman ‘Golden’, the booth level assistant who filed the complaint, said all the 49 applicants were from the minority Muslim community.
He said the applications were submitted before November 15, 2018. Almost all the applicants were students, who just attained 18 years. “I called the BLO many times, but he will never attend the call,” Rahman said. Even the students called but he did not attend the calls. Similarly, in booth 72, around 100 applications were submitted but 32 were rejected without any valid reason, he said.