Bengaluru: At least four to five voter identity cards bear the address of a vacant site in Basavanagudi.
- Ten voter identity cards carried the address of a teashop, though none of the voters worked or resided there.
- The age of one of the voters is mentioned as one year, while another voter is shown as 196 years old.
- One voter was found to be residing on 1st, 2nd, 3rd 4th, 5th and 6th Cross of Hanumanthanagar.
These are some of the findings of a survey by the Creative Centre for Social and Political Studies (COPS), which is campaigning to create awareness among voters about the importance of a fool-proof electoral list.
The survey, carried out across 33 Assembly segments between October 8 and November 10, was based on 14 parameters such as duplication of voters, expired voters, married and moved out voters, age difference, change of gender, photo unavailable, missing or wrong EPIC number, change of name among others.
The survey has revealed that there were 8.27 lakh errors in a list of 64.52 lakh voters. For example, the total number of errors in Basavanagudi constituency alone was a whopping 25,347, which is 12.72 % of the total voter population (1,98,410).
The segments chosen for the survey were Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davanagere South, Haveri, Gadag, Hubli-Dharawad East, Hubli-Dharawad Central, Belgaum Rural, Chikkodi, Gulburga North, Bidar, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Bellary Rural, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Ramanagar, Mandya, Mysore (Krishnaraja), Hassan, ChamarajaÂnagar, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Hoskote, Karwara, Chikmagalur, Udupi, Mangalore South, Shimoga City, Madikeri, Basavanagudi and Rajajinagar.
“Many voters were angry over the shoddy conduct of the authorities in issuing voter ID cards. Some voters gave up after applying for the voter ID card six times and not getting them. There is no contact point or response from the Election Commission office to track the status of the application. People felt that the political parties, which show enthusiasm in getting khata or ration cards to BPL families failed to take interest in getting voter ID cards for some strange reason,” stated the survey.
