Author: Pioneer News Service
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: December 28, 2005
Amid widespread allegations that the West
Bengal ruling dispensation has perfected the art of poll-rigging, the Election
Commission on Tuesday turned the screws on the poll-bound State's administration
for handing over the Commission's photo identity cards of a large number of
voters to just one person.
Detecting "glaring irregularities"
in the State Government's method of conducting electoral roll revision and
rejecting the claims of genuine voters by deleting their names from the electoral
roll, the commission also sternly warned the State Government to desist from
this "legally erroneous" practice.
The Commission conveyed its displeasure against
the State Government in two separate communications to the State's Chief Electoral
Officer, apprising him of the detection of various instances of wrong methods
of distributing the Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) and adjudicating
the claims and objections of voters during the ongoing revision of electoral
roll in the State.
"The EPICs have been distributed in a
most casual way in violation of the commission's existing instructions,"
noted the EC communication to the State CEO.
"The EC teams, during their visits to
the State found that in some places a large number of EPICs had been handed
over to just one person under his signature or almost all cards have been
distributed against acknowledgement receipt bearing thumb or even finger impressions,
which had not even been verified by any official," the EC missive added.
The teams have particularly noted such types
of distribution in Suti-I Block of Murshidabad, Nurpur GP in Malda and Rajnagar
Block in Birbhum, the sources said directing that responsibility should be
clearly fixed for such lapses, the EC said.
It also sought an explanation of such delinquent
officials and said action taken in the matter should be intimated to it by
January 5.
Asking the poll officials to forthwith make
a 100 per cent verification of relevant records of EPIC distribution, the
EC said the officials should submit a report along with a certificate of verification
at every level, sources said.
The District Electoral Officers should also
initiate action against officers responsible for any lapse in distribution
of EPIC found.
"It should be ensured at any cost that
each and every EPIC prepared is distributed to the voters properly since the
commission has decided that such electors to whom an EPIC has been issued
shall be required to produce it at the time of poll and voting on the basis
of any alternative document will not be allowed in their case," EC officials
said. The commission also directed the poll officials involved in the special
summary revision of electoral rolls in the State to be careful while taking
a decision on the acceptance or rejection of a claim.
In its communication to the West Bengal CEO,
the commission said that its visiting teams had found that the officials engaged
in revising electoral rolls often summoned a large numbers of applicants,
seeking their inclusion in the voters list to a single venue and made them
wait long hours to adjudicate their applications.
The commission also objected to the practice
of summarily rejecting the application of voters for their failure to appear
before the Electoral Registration Officer owing to circumstances beyond their
control despite the fact that State authorities do not adopt a uniform manner
of intimating the applicants of hearing dates.
The EC also objected to the State authorities'
intriguing practice of marking various applications with obscure codes or
signs.
