On Sat, Apr 25, 2009 at 10:16 AM, Biju Chacko <[email protected]> wrote: > I'm getting a fair amount of anecdotal evidence to support reports > that minorities have been systematically disenfranchised. Other than > the reports in the paper of widespread deletion of muslim names from > electoral rolls, I've been been hearing a lot from Christians as well. > I've heard of: > > * Names marked 'deleted' on the rolls. > > * Names missing (which were present online just a month ago). > > * Voter Registration attempts being rejected without explanation.
This is true for people belonging to the Hindu community (and probably others) as well. A neighbour, a resident of Bangalore since birth was told his old voter card is invalid and his entire family was asked to re-register as voters. Apparently re-registration as a voter is a process "everyone" must go through. Why are the old voter cards suddenly invalid? Arent the census data ever collated to reflect changes? Its another matter that the names have spelling errors, typos in the address, the photographs make the person look like a "wanted" one, and worst the genders get exchanged making the document unusable as an ID proof. For any error rectification, the voter MUST re-apply and go through the "registration process" again. As one lady (her card said she was "Male") mentioned, the contractor (given the job of voter ID cards) must be paid on volume basis as the officials printing and issuing the card on the spot refused to correct the errors when she pointed it out on the PC. Maybe its time we used the RTI to find how the tax-payers money was being (mis)used. -- .
