On courts direction two days provided for including left out voters
Shimla: Setting up the process for conducting the municipal poll here and following High Court orders, the electoral registration office would be working over the weekend to take into account last minute representations about any omissions that exist on the rolls.
Deputy commissioner Onkar Sharma, who is the electoral registration officer (ERO) for the Shimla municipal poll let Hill Post know that as per court orders, an opportunity is being given to consider the case of electors who have been left out of the electoral rolls.
All representations and objections will be considered well before publishing the final rolls on 26th April, he said.
All electors who have been left out are free to bring valid documents on Saturday and Sunday to our notice as electoral registration office would remain open on these days, he added.
Sharma rubbished reports about 30,000 names having been deleted from the electoral rolls saying that a very transparent process after consulting all political parties was adopted for preparing the roll.
At an early meeting held with all political parties, it was decided to make the electoral roll of Election Commission of India as the base and a survey was undertaken to provide an opportunity to electors for being registered at one place where double entries were noticed, he said.
In response to a petition about some omissions having taken place in preparing the electoral roll, the division bench of Chief Justice Kurian Joseph and Dharam Chand Chaudhar on Thursday had citied Rule 22(4) of the HP Municipal Corporation Election Rules, 2012, and directed the ERO that if it appeared to him, that an error had crept into preparation of the draft electoral rolls, he was empowered to take appropriate remedial action.
The court bound the ERO that all cases about inclusion in the electoral rolls be decided before 25th April so that the schedule of publishing the draft electoral rolls on 26th April is not affected.
However, the court refused to stay the process of holding the important civic poll observing, “it is not necessary for us to go into the various details of defects pointed out in the procedure of finalizing of the electoral rolls.”
Much importance is being attached to the civic polls as it comes up a few months before the general assembly elections and is being contested on party symbols for the first time.
Breaking from the past, the election for the mayor and deputy mayor post is being held by way of a direct election in the municipality.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
