The Himachal Pradesh CPM has blamed the state election commission for showing complete ineptness in the preparation of the voters list for the Shimla MC region.
CPM leader Sanjay Chauhan and Tikender Singh Parmar, while speaking to the media today, claimed that state election commission has created a complete chaos and mess up the electorates list as names of the large section of the electorates is missing. They stated
“the population of the city is crossing 2 lakhs and by any estimate the total number of voters should cross 1 lakh and 20 thousand, however only 63 thousand voters have been shown in the voters list. This shows that over 50% of the genuine people have been kept out because of lackadaisical attitude, sheer callousness and deliberate attempt to ensure that section of the informal sector labour is kept out”
CPM leaders said that in the old wards where no delimitation has taken place there is large scale discrepancy as genuine voters were left out. A cursory look at the voters list shows a definite trend of sheer callousness, he further added. They stated
“In Kaithu ward for example the entire locality of St Marks church where over 50 people live is left out. Similarly, many councilors don’t figure in the list. In over 22 booths there are just 5 or 10 voters. In the new Sangti ward (ward carved out from the erstwhile Malyana) where there should have been over 2400 voters only 1200 are registered. Interestingly in Sangti ward voters from Dhobi Ghat and new flowerdale localities which are part of Malyana ward have been incorporated in Sangti ward thus reducing the number further once this deletion takes place. Similarly, cases of criss-cross voters’ enrolment is rampant. For example Chiranjee Lal Kashyap the former MLA from Kusumpti constituency who resides in Totu ward finds his name in Kaithu ward. Similarly, Sanjay Gupta Executive Engineer PWD Shimla from Chakkar and Chandla of Van Chum computers again residing in Chakkar find their names in Kaithu ward. Likewise areas belonging to Panchayats namely Pujarli, Sargeen area etc. have been incorporated in the voter list of Panthaghati. Villages that were part of Shimla MC since British times like Andhri in Summerhill etc. have been kept out and a chunk of over 500 voters are missing. Similarly, young voters including students residing in localities and hostels are completely missing in the voters list”
The CPM has decided to hold protest for complete door to door revision of electoral rolls of Shimla MC akin to the election commission of India procedure, and also demanded for immediate withdrawal of present notification of electoral process.
