Enrolment of voters in State
By Our Reporter
Shillong: Deputy Chief Minister BM Lanong, who is also Chairman of the all-party committee to go into the contentious issue of voters’ enrolment, on Thursday submitted the recommendations of the committee to the State Government.
The report was submitted to the State Government by the Deputy Chief Minister in the presence of the Member Secretary of the Committee, J Lyngdoh, who is also the Commissioner and Secretary, Power.
The all-party committee comprising various political parties of the State was constituted to ease the stand-off between the government and NGOs on enrolment of ‘dubious’ voters.
The Committee recently expressed reservations over the new guidelines of the Election Commission of India and favoured reverting back to some old methods to ensure that dubious voters do not find place in the voters’ list.
In a significant recommendation, the Committee mooted that a person who comes from outside the State should stay in Meghalaya for at least six months to stake his or her claim for entry into the voters’ list.
The Committee also recommended that ordinarily citizens who wish to shift from one state to another or from one constituency to another will have to submit a deletion certificate issued by a competent authority to prove that he or she is no longer a voter of his/her previous place of stay or constituency, Lanong recently informed.
This suggestion is in deviation from the present guidelines of the Election Commission which says that it is the duty of electoral registration officers to delete the names of dual voters.
While reviewing the EC guidelines, the Committee chairman said the members felt that all possible measures should be taken to ensure that no illegal migrant and person with doubtful origin gets enrolled in the electoral rolls.
Lanong said verification of identity of persons who apply for registration should be done by the election machinery or by the district administration, Municipal authorities and also by the traditional institutions and the identification should be based on birth certificates, baptism certificates and school certificates among others.
Stating that the voters’ lists in the State are being prepared by following different procedures like interim revision, summary revision and continuous up-dation, he said the Committee felt that these methods are more than sufficient for people to get themselves enrolled as voters.
He said all the genuine citizens of India who have attained 18 years of age should be eligible for registration in the electoral rolls.
He also informed that the Committee has come up with several suggestions after studying the relevant Acts like the Citizens Act, 1955, Registration of Electoral Rules, 1960 and Representation of People’s Act, 1950.