GHMC detects over five lakh ghost voters
ECI, will delete all the 4.56 lakh similar photo entries and issue Form 7 notices to remove voters’ names that were entered twice
HYDERABAD: In a startling discovery, the election wing of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) found 4.56 lakh similar photo identity entries, 5.39 lakh duplicate entries and 1.5 lakh nonstandard house numbers during the National Electoral Roll Purification (NERP) programme in the 15 Assembly constituencies in the city.
The corporation authorities, following the guidelines of the Election Commission of India (ECI), will delete all the 4.56 lakh similar photo entries and issue Form 7 notices to remove voters’ names that were entered twice.
The election wing officials will reverify the 1.5 lakh nonstandard house numbers in order to achieve an accurate voters list.
There are 43,67,020 registered voters in the 15 constituencies in the final rolls which were published on January 5. Among them, over 22.5 lakh are male voters, 21.1 lakh are women and 666 enrolled themselves as the third gender. The number of polling stations in Hyderabad stood at 3,977.
The objective of the NERP was to improve the electoral rolls (ERs) by the inclusion of eligible citizens, make the electoral rolls free of errors, ensure that there is a single ER entry for every eligible elector with a unique elector photo identity card (EPIC) number/
The exercise was aimed at the removal of all absent, shifted and dead electors’ entries and repeat entries and ensuring Photo Electoral Rolls (PERs) with good quality correct images of every elector confirming to ECI standards, and linking electors with ECI by obtaining their contact details, standardisation of sections, polling station (PS) boundaries and, location and improved PS map by optimisation of part boundaries with standardisation of sections using GIS technology, relocation of PS with in part or in adjacent parts and improved PS map with part map, ‘how to reach to PS’, PS building image and dimensioned PS room drawing with basic minimum facilities (BMF) details.
The aim was to improve the authenticity of the rolls through effective use of technology and SVEEP strategies. Information technology is being used in information collection, processing, sharing and efficient decision making for this purpose, it was stated.
The national ERs database has been processed to identify and generate sets of demographically similar entries (DSMs) where electors’ name, gender, age, date of birth, relation type and names are similar for the electors and such DSEs are being subjected to further electronic scrutiny and field verification.