As the district election authorities have delayed supply of copies of electoral rolls to individual polling booths at Assembly constituency level in Adilabad, the schedule for special summary revision of electoral rolls announced by the Election Commission (EC) has gone haywire. Copies of photo electoral rolls, which ought to have reached polling booths latest by November 13, lie undistributed and strewn in the hall of the Revenue Guest House in town.
According to the revised schedule announced by the EC, draft publication of electoral rolls should have been done by November 11 to enable voters to file claims and objections starting that day. The weekly booth level special campaigns involving agents of political parties for receiving claims and objections need to have started on November 16 and verification of names through grama sabhas and other methods ought to have started on November 19.
Sources revealed that the copies, at the rate of 1 per polling booth, were received in Adilabad on November as late as November 16. Photocopies of the electoral rolls were made in Hyderabad which, sources added, was the reason for the delay.
Though there is ample time – till January 15, 2015 -- when the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published, the elaborate process laid down by the EC is being ignored This has become more certain as even political parties are not prepared to take up the special campaign as on date.
Adilabad district has a voter strength of nearly 20 lakh, distributed among 10 Assembly constituencies which cumulatively have 2,313 polling stations. The largest constituency so far as voter strength is concerned is Mancherial with over 2.4 lakh voters while the smallest is Bellampally (SC) with 1.61 lakh voters.
The highest number of polling stations, 258 is in Asifabad, while lowest number is in Bellampally. The task of completing the SSR as per schedule will be daunting given the vast expanse of the district, sources opined.
