Voters List Made by Civic Staff with Little Education
The only qualification for working as an SFA and PHW is attaining 20 years of age
Hyderabad: Almost one-third of block level officers (BLOs), who play a crucial role in the summary revision of electoral rolls, are underqualified workers, such as sweepers and sanitation workers with the GHMC’s sanitation. The voters list has run into a controversy with Opposition parties alleging that they contain large scale errors.
Of the 3,986 BLOs, one each for a polling station at present, 1,100 are public healthcare workers working in the GHMC’s sanitation wing.
The duties of BLOs involve enrollment of new voters, deletion of duplicate votes and names of dead persons. They are also responsible for making corrections to wrong entries.
Other GHMC staff appointed as BLOs include sanitary field assistants (SFAs), who head teams of sweepers and entomology workers, who undertake fogging and anti-larval operations.
The only qualification for working as an SFA and PHW is attaining 20 years of age. There is no mandated education qualification. Many workers were found not to have cleared their Class 10 exams.
Their appointment as BLOs across the 15 Assembly segments in the Hyderabad district has elicited surprise from many quarters.
“I did not clear my 10th standard exam. If I had a decent qualification, why would I put my health at stake and do this strenuous job which exposes us to garbage and dust?” a GHMC sanitation wing staffer, appointed as a BLO, said.
Unqualified BLOs were also alleged to be a primary reason for bogus voters as they were unable to carry out checks efficiently. Bogus votes include double entries and names of dead people as voters.
Recently, in a meeting held at GHMC head office, Congress and BJP leaders raised concerns about discrepancies in electoral rolls.
“I escalated the issue related to discrepancies in electoral rolls to Hyderabad District Election Officer (DEO) Ronald Rose,” said TPCC senior vice-president G. Niranjan.
As per Election Commission of India (ECI) guidelines, changes can be made to the electoral rolls and they will be reflected in the supplementary rolls. The final roll will be published on the last date of finalisation of candidates, i.e., November 15.