The Election Commission has ordered the suspension of two electoral registration officers in Uttar Pradesh over irregularities found in the electoral rolls for the Pilibhit Sadar Assembly constituency. The irregularities were discovered after allegations by the Congress that more than 13,000 voter names had been replaced.
The Election Commission (EC) of India took action against two electoral registration officers in Uttar Pradesh following allegations of irregularities in the electoral rolls for the Pilibhit Sadar Assembly constituency. On Saturday, the EC directed that First Information Reports be filed against Mayank Goswami and Hemant Chaudhary over the incident. The EC also suspended them and stated that they will not be reinstated without its prior approval.
The irregularities were first brought to light by the Congress on October 21, when it alleged that more than 13,000 voter names had been replaced with those of other individuals after the final electoral rolls were published in Pilibhit Sadar constituency.
On October 22, Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Navdeep Rinwa announced that legal action would be taken against the current and former electoral registration officers in the constituency. He also stated that the services of a computer assistant at the Voter Registration Centre in Pilibhit would be terminated.
An investigation by the Pilibhit district election officer found that a computer assistant had entered 13,779 Form 8 applications, which are used to correct details in an existing electoral roll or shift a voter’s residence. However, no physical forms or supporting documents were available to support the ‘corrections’.
Additionally, on Saturday, the Election Commission wrote a letter to Rinwa stating that after examining the report on the matter, it had decided to order the suspension of Mayank Goswami and Hemant Chaudhary. The commission also directed that Section 198 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which pertains to public servants disobeying the law, be added to the FIRs against the two officials and computer operator Anil Kumar. It also asked for their chargesheets to be submitted to the poll panel for further scrutiny.
The Election Commission also directed all district election officers and electoral registration officers in Uttar Pradesh to re-examine the voter lists under their jurisdiction, ‘especially data feeding of the addition, deletion or modifications done through Forms 6, 7 or 8’.
Uttar Pradesh was part of the second phase of the voter roll revision. More than two crore names, or 13.2% of the electorate, were deleted from the final rolls published on April 10. The BJP-ruled state had more than 15 crore electors before the roll revision.
Source:
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