Thousands of notices issued by the Election Commission amid Special Intensive Revision (SIR) have triggered confusion among voters in Uttar Pradesh. The notices regarding the names, fathers' names, and ages during the logical description process have been issued due to errors in age, spelling of their names, relation, and addresses.
Father's age 25, son's 45
In some of the bizarre cases, the father's age is reported to be less than that of his son. In one such case in Prayagraj, the father's age is written as 25 while the son's age is 45 years. In many cases, voters have to submit documents multiple times. Officials have said that its aim is to make the list transparent and error-free.
Cases of multiple fathers
Among other cases of illogical data, one person has multiple fathers, triggering notices. In Prayagraj's Kareli, notices were sent to two persons of the same family informing them that they have been shown as the son/daughter of a person who is also being claimed as the father by six other people.
Similarly, a notice has been sent stating that a man has four fathers. It also stated that the age difference between him and his grandparents is less than 40 years.
The discrepancies raise the possibility of a mismatch. The family was left baffled after reading the notice. They say they are being punished for the mistakes made by the voter list preparers.
A female voter in Salori was served a notice stating that the age difference between her and her parents was less than 15 years. Notices have been sent to other family members regarding the difference in the father's name and the inconsistent age difference.
Voters say that they had submitted documents earlier during the special revision, yet they are being sent a notice again. The report suggests that many BLOs (Booth Level Officers) either do not have complete information about the second notice or they are not providing the correct information to the voters, leading to confusion among them.
What does the Deputy District Election Officer say?
Amid a state of confusion, Deputy District Election Officer Pooja Mishra said that the sole purpose of sending notices to voters in the non-mapping category and those with logical discrepancies is to ensure a transparent and error-free voter list. Upon receiving the notice, the BLO must provide proof, after which the discrepancy will be rectified. There is no need to worry about this.
Hearing of 6.79 lakh notices completed
There are 1,062,435 voters in the district with logical discrepancies. Notices have been generated for 1,062,323 (99.99 per cent) voters as of Thursday evening. Notices have been delivered to 7,74,967 (72.94 per cent) voters, of which 6,79,282 (61.94 per cent) have been heard. EROs and AEROs are hearing these notices. After hearing the notices, these voters' names will be added to the list.