Printing Delays Notices to Unmapped Electors

Hyderabad: The task of serving notices to unmapped electors has not begun in Telangana, including Hyderabad, as the notices were not printed, delaying the process by three days after the claims and objections period began.

The claims and objections period started on August 17 and will continue until September 16. However, notices had not been served until Wednesday evening, causing concern among voters in the city over their electoral rights.

In Telangana, 92.87 lakh voters are to be served notices. Of them, over 60 lakh have anomalies involving names, addresses and other details, while the remaining over 30 lakh are unmapped voters.

Electors who submitted Voter Enumeration Forms complained that there was no mechanism to get the issues resolved. “Checking the name in the draft electoral roll itself is a cumbersome process, and finally after finding the name I realised that my husband’s name was mentioned adjacent to my mother’s name. However, I did not get any notice,” said a resident of Erragadda.

V. Ridhima, a resident of MLA Road No. 12, Banjara Hills, said she was also awaiting a notice. Mohammed Jabbar, a resident of Padhishreef, said there should be a mechanism to inform people.

“My uncle, who is over 80 years old and a retired government employee, is very concerned about his voting rights. The same concern made him follow up with the authorities even from the pre- mapping stage in the month of June. Now, after submitting the Enumeration Form, he doesn’t even know whether his vote has been mapped or not,” said Mohammed Jabbar.

Officials of the Hyderabad District Election Authority said notices under their jurisdiction would be served from Thursday. “There was exclusive training held for the task of serving notices,” said the official, who did not comment on the delay in printing the notices.