New Delhi: Amid the political row over the alleged rift in the Election Commission of India, Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar chaired a key meeting at Nirvachan Sadan on Saturday. Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi also attended the meeting. In the official statement issued after the meeting, the poll body claimed that the declaration attached to statutory Form 6 for SIR was upheld by the Supreme Court of India. The EC issued the clarification after India Express reported that the two Election Commissioners had objected to the changes made in the form without amending the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960.
“ For non-SIR period, the forms applicable as per Rules (the Registration of Electors Rules 1960) will be used,” EC said in the official statement.
SIR notices: Voters need not appear for hearings in most cases
Responding to the row over notices served to voters for being unmapped and logical discrepancies during SIR exercise, the Election Commission declared that each person who received the notices is not mandated to appear for a hearing to ERO/AERO office. Booth Level officers will visit the homes of such persons for collecting documents and thereafter upload them on the ECINet for decision by the ERO. The voters removed from the draft roll will be summoned for hearing only in exceptional circumstances as decided by the ERO. According to the official press release, the voters can appear for hearing either online or offline. If the voter can not attend the hearing, any adult member of the family will be allowed attend the hearing on his behalf.
The Election Commission also rubbished the alleged claims of denying state officials access to the electoral data.
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“ Field officials have role-based access to the ECINET system as per their statutory powers. A committee headed by Sr. Deputy Election Commissioner (DEC) and an independent expert from IIT/IIIT will review the ECINET to double check that it complies with the provisions of the Acts and Rules and submit report to the commission.Various upgaradations of the portal have already been made based on the inputs from State Ceos in the past few months,” said the poll body while rejecting claims on centralisation of voter data in Delhi.
The EC also reacted to the allegations of keeping the two election commisioners in the dark. It claimed that all business including sharing of agenda in advance of every meeting, completion of annual performance appraisal reports, approval of foreign trips were done as per the procedure.
“ All directions issued by the commissioners to the officers of the Commission shall be meticulously complied with,” reads the official press note.
Special enrolment drive for deleted voters
The Election Commission has decided to launch a special drive for enrolment of electors who were removed from the final electoral roll after the Special Intensive Revision in 20 states/UTs.
“Any person whose name has got left out during SIR or thereafter, and any person, including young/first time voter may apply to the concerned ERO for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls under the process of continuous updation. CEOs have been directed to facilitate the same,” said the EC after the key meeting.
Observing the allegatins of removing over 90 eligible votes from the electoral roll in Goa, the poll body declared that CEO Goa directed concerned BLOs to conduct house to house visits to collect forms from left out voters. The official statement confirmed that 81 voters among the 97 have alreay submited Form 6 for inclusion in the voters' list.
EC claims letters to Chief Secretary were not about objections
‘The Indian Express’ in its investigation report had claimed that Singh and Joshi had sent letter to the Chief Secretary citing their objections to the CEC's decisions. However, the EC in its fresh press note rubbished these claims.
According to the EC, the letter to the Cabinet Secretary was not related to any policy matter of the Commission or IT division, but related to working of an officer on deputation to ECI.
The EC also asserted that all decisions related to the SIR, including its schedule, were unanimously approved by the three members.
The Election Commission of India has issued a detailed press note as the nation is witnessing protests seeking the removal and arrest of CEC Gyanesh Kumar. Though 'The Indian Express' exposed a rift within the poll body and irregularities in the SIR process, the two Election Commissioners are yet to give an official response regarding the findings of the investigation report.
