As many as 1,600 bogus voters have been found in the district. Called the fake voters, the district returning officer is preparing a proposal to delist their names from the voters list before Lok Sabha election. Presence of fake voters in the voter list had kicked off a row in last state assembly election. It is equally a hot issue in Lok Sabha election. In this context, a hearing on a petition complaining presence of large number of fake voters is underway at Indore bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court.
Talking to media on Tuesday, district collector Lokesh Kumar Jatav who is also the district returning officer, said his office checked the presence of duplicate voters in the voters’ list through ERONet, a web portal launched by Election Commission last year.
The voters were examined on the basis of Demographically Similar Entries (DSE), which includes four points – name of voters, his/her father’s name, date of birth and photo. Jatav said on this basis, 4300 voters were traced as suspicious. As a follow up, block level officers undertook physical verification of suspected voters by visiting their residence. After physical verification, 1,600 voters were found fake.
Jatav said a proposal would be sent to EC to seek permission to delete names of bogus voters from the list of eligible voters of the district. Though, he could not offer the break-up of fake voters assembly constituencies wise, he said highest number of duplicate voters were found in Indore assembly constituency – 5.
Intelligence network to track cash movement
Jatav said banks have been told to keep close watch on bulk transactions and inform district election office and income tax department if they found any. In the backdrop of seizure of Rs 29.50 lakh hawala money by income tax department in city, Jatav said district administration is developing an intelligence network, which will keep close watch on cash driven markets like Sarafa.
Exam schedule
To a query on DAVV exam dates clashing with election schedule, Jatav said he has received request from some university departments, which are under consideration.