NEW DELHI, Jan 13:
Taking a serious view of 58,000 cases of voter cards with wrong photos admitted by Delhi Government, the Central Information Commission today called for an in-depth inquiry into cards issued on residential proof with MP or MLA recommendation to curb bogus voting.
Hearing a case in this regard, Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said in the context of admission about mistakes and huge bogus votes by Chief Electoral Officer of national capital in a PIL before Delhi High Court, the problem appears to be more serious and complex.
“It is shocking to know that there are 58,000 cases of wrong photo image, including that of a film star on a common man’s voter card, an in-depth inquiry into residential addresses with MP recommendation criterion might reveal more bogus votes,” he said.
Acharyulu said as there is a possibility of correction in voters’ list, the Commission recommends the SDM (election) to examine the issue and if that could be used to detect the bogus voter cards, such an initiative should be adopted “immediately”.
“This issue of bogus voter cards because of disputed residential addresses and multiple cards in one name is not taken seriously by the respondent authority,” he said.
The case relates to an RTI petition filed by a lawyer Anil Sood who sought from SDM (elections) concerning Assembly constituency-36 the copies of booth-wise list of registered voters, males/female ratio, number of people who have given their permanent address proof other than those in which they are residing etc.
“The appellant being a public spirited lawyer questioned the method of accepting the residence proof only on recommendation by MP or MLA which, as per his argument caused multiplication of voters, ie, one voter having different votes at different addresses,” Acharyulu pointed out.
In his hearing, Sood had claimed that because of the criterion that MP or Councillor’s recommendation substitutes the proof of residence, there are huge number of bogus votes in Delhi constituency which has capacity of rendering the whole process of elections into a farce.
“The Election Officers are trying to delay and deny the information instead of providing as he sought for. When an affidavit by elected Members of Parliament or Municipal Councillors could be the basis of giving a voter card, what action the Government would take in case one single person getting more than one voter card,” Sood questioned.
He also claimed that the SDM demanded Rs 7,922 for providing information citing the amount as photocopying fee for one bit of information and claimed that the remaining queries could not be revealed as it did not come under the ambit of the RTI Act.
Terming the demand of Rs 7,922 as “arbitrary”, Acharyulu said there is a “huge public interest” in the RTI application which should have been answered long ago. (PTI)
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