CHENNAI: The final electoral rolls released by Election Commission of India contain several discrepancies, allege local residents. The introduction of colour Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) which is traditionally issued in black of white, and the stringent guidelines of EC for field level staff have substantially brought down the anomalies in electoral rolls in the last few years.
However, complaints of non inclusion of names and mismatch of details in voters list surfaced. Particularly, applications for change of constituencies as result of change of address have not been updated, say residents. A 39 year old resident of Korattur says he submitted application through special camps in November last year.
He even got a text alert from the ECI saying his application was accepted, but his name was not in the list. “I have received a call from the person deployed for election duty for spell check. I have signed the document. However, my name was not included in the voters list,” said a resident of TNHB Colony. Many others have said the same.
Last year, the Election Commission said that it had enabled provisions for change of address and correction of details through National Voters’ Service portal - https://www.nvsp.in. Yet, a few applications seem to have been rejected. A political party cadre in Villivakkam said Aadhaar issued in early 2010 has got many errors because of which many applications were rejected. “Government must hold camps for correcting errors in Aadhaar.”
According to the Election Commission 21.82 lakh applications were received between November 15 and December 16, of which 21.39 lakh names included. About 5.09 lakh name deleted. Similarly, 3.32 lakh application received for correction of voters list of which 3.09 lakh were admitted. Official sources from EC said the newly added voters’ names may not appear online immediately due to server issue in election commission portal.
“If an applicant received text alerts, surely her name would have been included in the rolls and it may take one or two days to appear online. For correction of details, voters can submit requests through National Voters’ Service portal from next week onwards,” said the official.