PATNA: Altogether 230 people reside in a single house in Bihar’s Jamui district, as recorded by a booth-level officer (BLO) of Chaudiha panchayat during the recently concluded special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Anomalies like this one in the voters’ list came to surface after Election Commission published the draft electoral rolls on August 1. More than 200 residents of Aamin village under Chaudiha panchayat complained to district administration that their address has been mentioned as house number 3 of ward number 3 in the draft rolls.
According to the residents, they live in separate houses but the draft electoral rolls showed them staying in the house number 3. “How is it possible? It shows that the BLO filled in enumeration forms sitting in office and did not bother to conduct house-to-house survey,” said a resident of Aamin village.
Noor Hasan (70), another resident, said the BLO did not visit her house to distribute enumeration forms. She alleged that the BLO visited a house on the outskirts of the village and filled forms without signatures of electors. “This is sheer callousness,” she said.
Another resident Mohammad Danish alleged that BLOs Rajiv Kumar and Gautam Kumar filled in enumeration forms without conducting door-to-door campaign in the village. Mohammad Shahnawaz said the purpose of SIR has been defeated due to callousness of the BLOs. He said Kaushal Khatoon, wife of Mohammad Alizan, died three years back but her name figured in the draft rolls. “The family had submitted enumeration form to the BLO, but it was not rectified,” he alleged.
Deputy election officer, Jamui, Mohammad Nazrul Haq refused to comment on the issue, saying that the report has been sent to the authorities for necessary correction. BLO Rajiv Kumar claimed that it happened due to technical glitch. “I have informed the block development officer. The anomaly in inclusion of dead persons’ names in the draft rolls will be rectified by submitted form 7,” the BLO said over phone on Saturday.
In Patna’s Gardanibagh, 22 dead persons figured in the draft rolls. In booth number 479 of Digha assembly constituency, voters’ list shows Shankar Prasad, his son Navin and Navin’s wife Sita Devi as electors with serial numbers 799, 804 and 806. The three people died in 2010, 2020 and 2021.
Deceased Shankar’s brother Surendra Prasad revealed that the enumeration form that he filled in had anomalies. He cited the case of his daughter-in-law Ravita. In column of her husband’s name, his (Surendra’s) name has been mentioned, he said.
Ram Sundar Rai of Saristabad revealed that he was surprised to find his wife Sundarpari Devi’s name in the draft rolls. His wife died in 2023. “I did not fill in enumeration form of my wife, who is no more. Yet her name exists in the draft electoral rolls,” he said.
In addition, 2,92,048 voters in the state have their house number ‘0’, ‘00’ and ‘000’. The scrutiny of draft rolls showed Magadh and Patna divisions have the highest number of voters with their house numbers reading ‘0’.
The electoral list of Obra constituency in Auraganad district revealed the highest number of such voters at 6,637, followed by Phulwari (5,905), Maner (4,602), Forbesganj (4,155), Danapur (4,063), Gopalganj (3,957), Patna Sahib (3,806), Hajipur (3,802), Darbhanga (3,634) and Gaya Town (3,561). A total of 15 constituencies saw over 3,000 such names. Agiaon in Bhojpur district had the least at 47.
When contacted, an official at the chief electoral office said that in villages, a majority of people didn’t recall their house numbers, so they mentioned their house numbers as ‘0’. “We are looking into this,” he said.