A deputy tehsildar level officer who was on election duty has been suspended for approving five voter cards in the name of a single person in Kasargod, said State Chief Electoral Officer TR Meena on Monday.
However, he said that the Commission has not been able to find any political motives behind the incident.
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Meena said the officer in Uduma was suspended after the cards in the name of Kumari, a 61-year-old voter, was found in the system.
"We have suspended one officer deputy tehsildar when we found there is a lapse on her part. In Kasargod district one of the officers has approved five voter IDs and that has been detected. The officer has been suspended. We have ordered a detailed investigation in all 140 constituencies," the Chief Electoral Officer said in a press conference here.
"We were not able to find any political motive if it is there I cannot say much about it. That does not come under my purview. But if there is an intentional of purposeful or motivated foul play from the part of an officer to approve more cards, we will identify and will take strict action against him," he added.
He further warned that strict action would be taken against such officers if foul play was detected in the voter card issuing exercise.
Meena said multiple entries was nothing new and was there in all states. It might happen while applying for the cards, he said.
"Applying for voting ID card is an online process and many people may apply several times by mistake. Sometimes your application will be processed three or four times. Another reason is that many people shift their constituencies and addresses and apply at the new place. So they will apply for voters ID card, but their names will be still in their earlier place. It will come as double entry," Meena said.
The CEO said such Demographically Similar Entries (DSEs) are normally removed before the election notification and not after it.
"We have ordered a detailed investigation in all the 140 constituencies," Meena said. He also said the C-VIGIL mobile application received over 67,000 complaints on violation of the model code of conduct, following which over six lakh posters and banners were removed across the state.
Meena also said that 140 companies of central forces have been reached the state for the election.
"There are 5,40,044 postal voters in the state. Out of 3,17,000 polling personnel, 3,04,081 have been vaccinated against Covid-19," he said.
Rejection of nominations
Regarding the rejection of nominations of three National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidates, Meena said that the returning officer has done his job. "It is not right to level allegations. The matter is sub-judice," he said.
BJP's N Haridas and Nivedida Subramanian and its ally AIADMK's candidate, R M Dhanalakshmi had approached the Kerala High Court which met at a special sitting on Sunday to hear their pleas after their nominations were rejected during scrutiny on the ground that their papers were incomplete.
While Haridas and Nivedita had filed their nominations from Thalassery (Kannur) and Guruvayur (Thrissur) constituencies respectively, Dhanalakshmi was proposing to contest from Devikulam in Idukki district.
Their pleas were rejected by the high court on Monday.
The election for the 140-member Kerala assembly will be held on 6 April. The counting of votes will take place on 2 May.
With inputs from agencies.
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