Errors galore in voter ID cards

Lok Sabha electionsWith the Lok Sabha elections done with plenty of complaints of missing names at times omissions of entire buildings from the voters’ lists, the local Election Commission office was asked to take note of these complaints and gear up for the State Assembly elections.

With the latter almost at the threshhold, the newly made cards too are not free from errors. Prabhakar Ranande, president of Bal Vikas Sangh showed how many errors just two cards,-his and his wife’s, contained. Ranade lamented, “I have been a voter for more than three decades and have been a resident of the same place.

They have made mistakes in every line! Can you imagine how many mistakes would have been made elsewhere?” His view was seconded by Mohammed Farooque, municipal corporator from Cheeta Camp. He alleged that several mistakes in voter ID cards have occurred in his constituency too.

He even said that he was contemplating taking a legal recourse to check such blunders. Unfortunately, all the staff of the election office has been pressed into work and hence no one was available for comment and give the exact statistics of registered voters.

The mistakes in voter ID cards have come to light when the election commission has put up big billboards stating that there would be no burden of paper work and that a citizen could get a voter card within a week if he enrols on their website.

Some voters say that after they found their names missing, they registered their names with the photographs and the required documents in December 2008 and that some have received their cards last week only. It has taken more than nine months to deliver a voter card!