Will it help ? Assam doesn't seem to face the problem of ballot bandits. In Bihar Laloo & Co. has gone.
Umesh
Guwahati, Tuesday, November 22, 2005
EC to use Bihar model in all States
NEW DELHI, Nov 21 Buoyed by its experiment in Bihar, Election Commission plans to vigorously enforce its decision to remove names from electoral rolls of those against whom non-bailable warrants were pending for over six months in the next round of Assembly elections in major States like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal early next year. It (the deletion of names) will be applicable in all States. The Commission has already started monitoring the process, Chief Election Commissioner BB Tandon told PTI.
He was responding to a question whether the EC directive, which was enforced in Bihar Assembly polls with success, would be applied in the next round of Assembly polls which includes Assam, Kerala and Pondicherry.
Tandon said the measure had worked wonders in Bihar where over 1.51 lakh NBWs were executed in three months. The polls were unprecedented in that they were conducted in a totally peaceful atmosphere virtually without any untoward incident as the state polls were generally a violent affair so far.
The EC had in August directed the Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all states and union territories to initiate immediate steps in this regard.
Justifying the process for four-phased month-long poll, the CEC said that what helped matters was the Centre making available a massive 605 companies (around 60,500 personnel) of central paramilitary forces in the first phase itself.
Out of the 605 companies, 150 companies of Central forces came a month in advance which enabled EC in the conduct of smooth elections, he said.
A meticulous planning went into the proper deployment of central forces in every polling booths particulaly in naxal-infested areas and their movement which instilled confidence among the voters, Tandon said.
Refusing to be drawn into the issue of "who should take the credit" for the peaceful polls in otherwise volatile state, the CEC said it is a team work. We have worked in harmony. The credit should go to the people.
The exercise to clean up the electoral rolls helped in the deletion of 18.34 lakh names of "dead and bogus" voters after thorough verification, he said adding 4.83 lakhs names were added to the rolls.
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