Bogus voters: EC gives nod to FIRs against 2 electoral officers
2
Kolkata: The
Election Commission
has given the nod to FIRs against two electoral registration officers (EROs) in Bengal for anomalies in the voters' list, a senior poll panel official said on Sunday. The two officers shared their passwords with data entry operators, which allowed the latter to feed 102 bogus voters' data into the EC portal.
TOI reported that the EROs of Nandakumar in East Midnapore and Rajarhat-Gopalpur in North 24 Parganas were questioned by EC and were under scrutiny for failing to give a satisfactory reply to the commission.
The office of the chief electoral officer sent a report to the EC, indicating that names of non-existent voters were entered directly by data entry operators by using the passwords of the two EROs. The two EROs have admitted to sharing the passwords, the report said.
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In this case, it was found that even booth level officers (BLOs) were not sent to verify the names. The lack of physical verification allowed the electoral rolls to be inflated with bogus voters, sources said. The district electoral officers were then asked to probe the malpractices.
In the case of Nandakumar, 59 people, and for Rajarhat 43 such voters — whose information needed to be verified — were entered in the electoral rolls.
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The data entry operators misused the passwords and made entries without valid identity proof.
EC officials are also contemplating FIRs against the data operators and the agencies that hired them. The two EROs may also face disciplinary action under section 32 of the Representation of the People Act for breach of official duty in connection with preparation of electoral rolls.
The state CEO has also sought clarifications from two assistant returning officers (AROs) of Moyna (East Midnapore) and Baruipur (South 24 Parganas).
An official said ahead of the special intensive revision (SIR), the commission wants stern action against any electoral malpractice. Last week, the poll body published the 2002 SIR of electoral rolls in Bengal, tabling voter data of 11 districts covering 109 assembly segments.
The 23-year-old data was published under the heading "Electoral Roll of SIR 2002, (remaining ACs will be uploaded soon)". The list was not updated till Sunday evening. The last SIR saw 25 lakh voters being purged from Bengal's voter rolls.
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