HYDERABAD: One-third of voters who are on the existing voter’s list of the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly constituency, could not be verified in the voter verification drive that is almost complete. The missing voters have either moved from the old address or have passed away, or the address mentioned is not clear or the person is not traceable at the given address. Whatever the reason, the overall number of voters will come down by nearly 25,000-30,000.
The number of voters in the list is 2.54 lakh. While one-third of the existing names are missing, the fresh list will add nearly 35,000 newly enrolled voters. The door-to-door voter survey is ongoing in 36 urban Assembly constituencies in TS, including in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation limits, on the directions of the Election Commission of India. While the verification process was completed in other constituencies, the Cantonment lagged behind mainly because the private agency assigned to the job opted out owing to poor network signals in defence areas. The Cantonment administration then stepped in and expedited the drive in eight divisions during the last four weeks.
Of the 80,000 voters from the previous list, nearly 50,000 will be deleted as voters may have shifted to a new address. Around 30,000 voters were not traced at all. According to survey staff, some residents expressed their dismay when they found unknown names listed as living in the house they are residing in. Such voters will go into the untraced category and will be ultimately deleted. A door-to-door survey has been taken up after 10 years.
“In a rented house, tenants keep changing and unless objections are filed, the election commission will not delete names at that particular address. Unlike usual enrolment every year, this is a door-to-door survey and hence untraceable voters are coming to light. Hence all untraceable voters cannot be classified as fake names,” an official said. Meanwhile, Secunderabad Cantonment MLA, G. Sayanna, says he will file objections once the election commission publishes the draft electoral rolls listing the total number of voters as well as additions and subtractions to the list.
