SHILLONG: In the wake of opposition of the pressure groups to the enrolment of voters in Meghalaya, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer P. Naik has allayed their fears by stating that proper care has been taken by the government to ensure a transparent enrolment process.
Speaking to The Shillong Times on Sunday, Naik said that since the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) has quasi-judicial powers, every decision is appealable to the higher electoral officer or to the Court.
“The process being undertaken by the ERO is quasi- judicial in nature and there is always scope for appeal. ERO can also take the assistance of Booth Level Officers (BLOs), police or any other agencies to discharge responsibilities”, he added.
He said that there are three types of revision of voters which include intensive revision, continuous revision and summary revision. While intensive revision is carried out from house to house in special circumstances, summary revision is undertaken in the last part of every year to enroll those voters who attain 18 years of age as on January 1. Naik said that the ongoing continuous revision was not only aimed at enrolment of new voters, but also for residual voters. Moreover, deletion and correction is also carried out during the continuous revision in a permanent centre, he added.
The CEO also allayed certain misconceptions about the registration of voters by stating that the criterion that a person should stay in a place for six months was no longer applicable.
“Any ordinary resident can get his or her name registered. For example if an indigenous person is working in Delhi, he or she can only be registered in Delhi and not in Meghalaya as the person will be the ordinary resident there,” Naik said, while adding that a non-indigenous person who is an ordinary resident of Meghalaya can only register here. At the same time, a person cannot have double entry, Naik clarified.
The CEO also asserted that if anyone is a foreign national, he cannot be enrolled as the person should be deported. Moreover, it is also the duty of the political parties to check the dubious voters, if any, as political parties can appoint booth level agents.
He further said that there is an effort on the part of the Election Commission of India to match the electoral rolls with bio metric records to be undertaken by the Registrar General of Census in case of Meghalaya to remove dubious or duplicate voters.
Regarding the issue of Aadhaar cards, the CEO said that though the Supreme Court has not made Aaadhaar mandatory, there will come a time when government schemes including MGNREGS, scholarships and others will be only routed through the Aadhaar system.
