Civil society demands fair probe into deletion of 73 lakh Telangana voters
Hyderabad: Civil society groups have demanded transparency in Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls after more than 73 lakh voters were deleted from Telangana’s electoral rolls.
In a representation to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Telangana Chief Electoral Officer Sudershan Reddy, members of civil society organisations and social activists said the lack of transparency in the notice and hearing process risks undermining voters’ ability to defend their right to remain on the electoral roll.
The representation flagged the “mechanical issuance of notices” in cases identified as involving logical discrepancies, including differences in names, ages and relationships between the 2002 SIR records and current electoral-roll details. They said a notice without a clear explanation of the alleged discrepancy places the burden on voters to establish their eligibility without knowing precisely what they are required to address. They demanded that every voter receiving a notice be provided with complete reason for it, including the exact details found to be mismatched, the relevant 2002 SIR particulars, the voter’s present electoral-roll details and the specific discrepancy identified.
The groups also sought a mechanism through which voters can track the status of their cases and access the records being relied upon by election authorities, including documents submitted by the voter, documents uploaded by the Booth Level Officer, hearing details and recommendations of the Electoral Registration Officer and District Election Officer. They further demanded that authorities clearly indicate the stage of each case and that voters should not face adverse decisions merely because a document is initially considered insufficient.
The civil society organisations also argued that minor spelling variations, differences arising from transliteration and clerical errors in the 2002 SIR records should not automatically result in notices. They demanded greater public accountability and asked the Telangana CEO to publish a daily constituency-wise bulletin showing number of notices issued.
The demands arose following deletion of more than 73 lakh voters under the ongoing SIR. The former Chief Minister of Telangana also wrote a letter to the Election Commission seeking additional time to complete the revision process and pointing out discrepancies.
