A former Naval officer, who once made sure the ship’s weapons were spot on target, now trains his guns on the shoddy electoral roll that keeps thousands from exercising their franchise.
The target is 4,000-year-old men, those with strange names (XXX, ABC, XYZ), mothers whose children are 13 years younger than them, and those whose names feature in more than one place on the electoral list. P.G. Bhat (66) has remained a crusader, wielding his trusty weapon — an indigenously developed software — against errors in electoral roll.
In December 2012, Mr. Bhat found that over 13.5 lakh names were missing from the electoral roll in the State. In the preceding months, he had analysed the electoral roll to find over 15 lakh entries without EPIC (Electoral Photo Identification Card) numbers. “I had pointed this out to the Election Commission in January and they directed the State Election Commission to rectify the error. However, they deleted all these names instead!” Mr. Bhat says.
Eventually, he took the matter to the court, and the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court found “enough evidence” to direct the State Election Commission to ensure that all the names were included. “I consider this a big personal achievement. Before approaching the court, it had taken more than 50 emails and two months of persistent follow up with officials concerned just to draw their attention to the issue,” he says.
Mr. Bhat was an electrical officer in the Navy till 1996, where he was in charge of maintaining the hardware and software of weapons. He then made his way to various tech companies, before retiring in 2009 as the head of a tech mining (data analysis).
His interest in electoral reforms began when he was associated with the citizen’s movement, ‘Smart Vote’, that sought to raise voter awareness. “It occurred to me that we need to be fully aware about the process before we advise others. I decided to use technology to get the information about electoral roll. Though it was only to get information, errors in the electoral roll became clear,” he adds.
There was no looking back after that. He improved his software, and by 2012, various election officials evinced interest in using this expertise to iron out the issues with the electoral roll.
His projects, achievements
1. He has developed a software that can analyse reams of electoral roll and sort out errors, missing names.
2. Based on his PIL, the Karnataka High Court directs the Chief Election Officer, Karnataka, to include over 13.5 lakh deleted names on the voters’ list
3. Tamil Nadu State Election Commission adopts his software to scrutinise electoral roll
Suggestions to government
1. There should be a common Electoral Rolls Management System. At present, the Election Commission of India prescribes guidelines, and each State creates its own software for the same purpose.
2. During the BBMP polls, 38 booths had more than 2,000 voters. For better crowd management, ECI guideline of 1,400 voters per urban booth should be followed.
3. Better use of technology to weed out duplicate names and bogus names.
What Bengalureans can do: 1. Keep an eye on their names in the electoral list. At the first sign of deletion, one should follow up with the local authority.2. Petition the State Election Commission and the Central Election Commission on mistakes in the electoral roll and urge for better management of the lists.
3. Be proactive when it comes to getting mistakes rectified.
