SIR: Notices Drive Demand For Certificates At Mee Seva Centres

There has been a rush at Mee Seva centres in towns for the documents prescribed by the state election commission. Villagers are travelling to towns to apply for the documents, with long queues reported at Mee Seva centres in Ichoda over the past two days. There have also been delays in issuing fresh documents for which voters had applied recently.

According to the report, nearly 30 per cent anomalies were found in the enumeration forms distributed to voters in the Adilabad and Boath assembly constituencies, while 25 per cent anomalies were reported in the Mancherial assembly constituency.

A large number of voters received notices for failing to map their votes to the 2002 voters list and for mistakes in names, surnames, spellings and age differences between parents and children.

Adilabad Jilla Grandhalaya Samsta chairman Mallepula Narsaiah said his daughter Chatla Gouthamy received a notice over a spelling mistake in her name in Telugu, which was printed as ‘Chaatla Gouthamy ’. He said they had submitted her Aadhaar card and patta passbook for correction of the name to retain her vote at Bajarhathnoor mandal headquarters.

Narsaiah said many voters had received notices over minor mistakes in their documents. He cited the case of Bandi Pothanna, who migrated from Maharashtra 35 years ago and settled in Bajarhathnoor. Pothanna's father was settled in Shivuni in Maharashtra. Narsaiah said Pothanna, who was illiterate, had only an Aadhaar card and no other document to submit to retain his vote.

Narsaiah said local BLAs were now coordinating with the respective BLOs and resolving problems arising from mistakes by making corrections.

The officials are serving notices to voters whose names were listed under anomalies for various reasons, including mistakes in names, ages and surnames, as well as ASDD (Absent, shifted, deceased and duplicate voters) identified during the SIR process.

The Congress’s BLAs were not actively supervising the SIR, according to the report, while there was also a lack of coordination between BLAs and BLOs. In some places, BLOs were not visiting voters’ houses and were asking them to collect notices from their houses or those of local councillors.

According to official sources, 85,525 notices were generated out of 2,50,393 electors in the Adilabad Assembly constituency. Of these, 6,146 notices were delivered and 79,379 were yet to be delivered.

In the Mancherial Assembly constituency, 68,195 notices were generated out of 2,83,299 electors.

In the Boath Assembly constituency, 64,900 notices were generated out of a total of 2,16,391 electors. Of these, 19,655 notices were served and 45,245 were yet to be served to voters whose names were listed under anomalies in the SIR.