PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Dehradun
A delegation of Uttarakhand Congress met the chief electoral officer BVRC Purushottam at his office on Thursday and expressed their resentment on what they claim is an organised plan to delete the names of voters by misuse of Form VII under the ongoing process of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The delegation was led by general secretary (Organization) of the party Rajendra Singh Bhandari. He told the CEO that the information received from various assembly constituencies in the State reveal that some individuals are filing a large number of Form-VII in online mode.
“Physical verification revealed that many of the voters whose names were removed were found to be residing at their addresses. This raises the suspicion that a planned effort is underway to remove the names of genuine voters from the electoral rolls,’’ he said.
The delegation requested the CEO that any complaint without identifying the complainant should not be taken up. The Congress leaders said that the unverified and misleading Form VII should be immediately revoked. Furthermore, no voter’s name should be removed from the electoral rolls without proper investigation and completion of the legal process.
Bhandari said that as per the provisions of Section 31 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and the BNS, action should be taken against those who filed Form-VII by giving false information.
He said the Congress wants that democracy should be protected and the constitutional rights of voters should be safeguarded and the ECI should ensure a fair and transparent election process. Bhandari added that in view of the upcoming assembly elections, it is essential that the ECI take prompt and effective action on this matter.
Congress leaders Suryakant Dhammana, Amrendra Bisht, Rakesh Negi and others were part of the delegation.
