Nellore: 11,005 bogus voters removed

Nellore: As many as 11,005 bogus voters, who found their way into the electoral rolls of East Rayalaseema graduates’ constituency, consisting of Nellore, Prakasam and Chittoor districts, allegedly because of the negligence of officials at mandal level in checking the attestation of graduate certificates before uploading the applications, were eliminated from the list.

The elimination exercise was taken up following the directions of the Hyderabad High Court to remove bogus votes and submit the details of action taken against the officials responsible for the irregularities and relevant details by February 21.

The court gave the orders to the Election Com-mission based on a petition filed by G. Obulu of the Rayalaseema Development Committee. He alleged that the election authorities failed to address complaints about enrolment of bogus and ineligible persons in the voters’ list prepared for the ensuing MLC elections in Kadapa, Kurnool and Anantapur, besides Chittoor, Nellore and Prakasam districts graduates/teachers constituencies.

As per the update list submitted to the Election Commission, 7,947 bogus graduate voters were deleted from the list in Nellore district, 707 in Prakasam district and 2,361 in Chittoor district. In case of the teachers’ segment, 277 voters were removed in the district.

Sources in the revenue department in Nellore attributed the large number of bogus voters in  the district to attestation done by a person, who is not authorised to sign, in thousands of applications.

Enrolment of ineligible diploma holders also led to the imbroglio. Diploma holders are eligible if their academic backgrou-nd is on the basis of 10+2+3, but the names of those with less than 15 ye-ars of education also fou-nd place in the voters’ list.

Taking a serious view, the authorities issued show cause notices to 40 mandal parishad development officers and 17 mandal education officers in Prakasam district.

In case of Nellore, notices were served to 47 tahsildars and five revenue divisional officers. In Chittoor district, the higher authorities issued show cause notices to 40 mandal education officers and 11 tahsildars.