During every election we hear widespread complaints regarding the names missing from the voters list, so also in current Lok Sabha elections. Those possessing identity cards too could not vote as their names were deleted from the list. In fact, the additions are more than deletions this time. But it cannot compensate the loss caused to those who were denied the right to vote. District Election Officer and Dy. Commissioner of Mysore P. Manivannan has discussed the reasons for such lapse in the voters list while inviting citizens and NGOs to join the administration to prepare a fool - proof voters list - Editor

At the outset let me make it clear that I am not trying to defend those government officials (including me!) who are / were responsible for the deletion of names of the genuine voters. I fully recognise the agony and disappointment of the voters when they can’t vote. I am also aware of the other consequences of denial of vote in a democracy like ours.

I just want to discuss different aspects involved in this “deletion of votes”. This is written in the interest of bringing awareness among the general public and not directed against any individual/s, political party/ties or anyone remotely involved in the electoral process. The revision of the roll is done by the district administration under the orders of the Election Commission of India (ECI). The district administration doubles as Election administration also. (It is like the Geography teacher taking Geology; can manage it, but doesn’t have the expertise!)

“Continuous updation”:
As mentioned, the district administration is not an expert in data management, but it manages a database of 21 lakh voters (records), having 10 - 15 fields! Apart from this, the district administration also allows for “continuous updation” of the rolls, as and when the citizens apply for addition/deletion, through the Taluk office / Corporation offices. The Roll Registration Officer for the city is the Commissioner of Mysore City Corporation (MCC) while for rural areas it is the Tahasildar. The officers have to appoint one official per booth, called the Booth - Level Official (BLO). This has been the recent initiative by the ECI. Earlier we had one official for 3 - 4 booths!

Inefficiency:
At the field level there are inefficiencies, as in the case of any huge organisation. The BLOs are normally primary school teachers, water man, bill collector etc. At that level they do not realise the importance of the roll completely. As we all know, quite a number of them are also inefficient, demotivated and do not take the job seriously. Thus deletions at times may not be genuine. One may ask, “What are the senior officers doing? And why can’t the system be devised in a way that it doesn’t allow the subjectiveness of the BLO?” The answer is: The senior officers are so few (1 DC, and 12 senior officers to manage 21 lakh records, that too part time!).

Regarding checks and balances, the ECI came up with the beautiful system of asking the political parties to appoint one agent from their party for every polling booth, called as Booth Level Agent (BLA). Apart from that, the additions / deletions are accepted ONLY after it is displayed in the notice board, and objections are called for.

In reality, the political parties are so far not serious about appointing BLAs. Nor the citizens take pains to check the notice board in the Taluk office. The general apathy about the Roll during non-election time is palpable. It is just left to the official machinery!

One might ask, what do the senior officers do? What if his mistake is caught by the senior officer, as it happens once in a while? Maximum is that the BLO is suspended for a month or so. Everybody feels that it’s too harsh a punishment for just making an “error” in his part - time job. And he goes scot - free!

The electoral system can't escape the general inefficiency in governance in any organisation. One might ask, “But it appears that the problems are more in Election”. I beg to differ. Indeed the mistakes are far less in Election process, than in any other field of governance, thanks to the sword of ECI hanging over the head of all officials!

Shifting:
Let's take Mysore for example. Mysore has 21 lakh voters. How many mistakes in that? The deletions in the last 6 months (November to April) are around 43,000 in the city. But the additions are around 63,000. Thus the net is positive. Among the 43,000 “deletions” only around 3,900 are real deletions, and balance is “shifting” the voters from one polling booth to another.

Why shifting? That is done to rationalise the polling booths and also during the delimitation exercise. In an ideal situation, we need to go for a spatial study of combining various logical parameters. But, currently, in the absence of a detailed spatial data, it is done manually by the BLOs. Now you know how the manual errors have crept in. Adding to this is the mistakes encountered in data entry of this huge data. The errors can be minimized only when we get the best in the market, but then it costs a lot! Considering all these constraints, the error of margin, 0.18% seems to be not away from the mark. The number of deletions for the city of Mysore is neatly tabulated in the presentation available at www.mysoreelections.com

The ratio is approximately 0.18%. (3,900 / 21,00,000). The deletions are arranged in descending order. You will notice the huge deletions; more than 100 are only in 10-20 booths. So it is not right to say “1000 are deleted”. But, yes, 100s are deleted, of which many of them may be incorrect deletions. We may note that the figures make it very clear that there are no biases in the deletion like "minority" etc. In Mysore, the maximum deletions are in Chamaraja constituency, which has fewer minorities and fewer slums. I am not supporting any mistake made by the government officials but just want to make the facts very clear. Also, the opinion that 'deletions' are responsible for low percentage of polling is taking things too much. The “deletions”, as explained, matter only 0.18%. But, yes, incorrect deletion is bad, because it robs the citizen of something which is priceless.

What is the solution?
Now, what is the solution? Needless to say, it involves improving the governance in general. As short term solution, we may go for more Voter Facilitation Centres (VFCs) round – the - clock, as planned in Bangalore. May be dedicated officials, to take care of the Roll, rather than part time staff, who are always hard pressed for time. Notwithstanding anything, I sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to the voters in this regard. I empathise with them and will do all to reduce such errors. I attended almost all calls that day; 135 calls, of which 90 % are about deletions.

It is the responsibility of all of us to ensure a correct Roll. The administration has to take the lead. We are ready. Are you ready? Will there be more persons like Vasanth Kumar Mysoremath, or Bapu Satyanarayana, or Erram or Maj. Gen. S. G. Vombatkere, or Bhamy Shenoy or Muralidhar, who are ready to give their time and energy for such activities? Can the Citizen Committees give their input?

In any election process, there appears to be three main stakeholders. The citizens, who vote; the political parties who require the votes; and the administration, which enables and regulates the process. We, from the administration are ready to have a brainstorming session on this. Will the other two stakeholders volunteer?

P. Manivannan,
District Election Officer and Deputy Commissioner, Mysore
Courtesy: Star of Mysore