Nellore: Nellore Corporation is yet to correct the lapses in delimitation of wards and voters’ list due to which it was excluded from the election process by the State Election Commission (SEC). The nomination process had not taken place last year due to a stay order from the High Court. Moreover, the civic body published the same old delimitation list on December 22, 2020, much to the shock of those who went to court against the process.
Former TD corporator Vuchhi Bhuvaneswara Prasad had filed a writ petition in February last year alleging that the delimitation carried out by the civic body in 54 divisions of Nellore was illegal and produced supporting documents.
Speaking to this newspaper, Prasad alleged that the voters’ list pertaining to Nellore City and Rural Assembly segments that are part of Nellore Municipal Corporation had a large number of errors with respect to names, door numbers and polling stations. He alleged that officials continued with the same voters’ list to benefit the YSR Congress even though the High Court annulled the lopsided reorganisation process.
Giving an example of the irregularities in the delimitation process he pointed to 5,000 voters in the 17th division and a whopping 16,000 voters in the first division. Mr Prasad said, “The reorganisation of wards was done as per 2011 population Census since the latest Census was not available. As per rules, the difference in number of voters should not cross 10 per cent in each division. However, the stipulation was ignored while reorganising the wards in December 2019.”
In fact, the boundaries of each ward should have been based on door numbers but the Civic body officials showed survey numbers confusing everyone concerned.
“Though we raised objections to the process, they showed survey numbers and landmarks for boundaries instead of door numbers in the voters’ list published on December 22, 2020,” Bhuvaneswara Prasad complained.
He pointed out the unscientific method of dividing wards would result in people living in one locality and even in one house going to different polling booths to exercise their franchise.
“The reply of RDO in September 2019 to my query under RTI Act that they don’t have any records on door numbers coming under each polling station is a clear indicator about the state of affairs pertaining to the electoral rolls in Nellore. The officers had carried out delimitation exercise based on the voter's list which is full of errors,” Bhuvaneswara Prasad complained.
