Saturday, 15 April 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
The Uttarakhand Raksha Morcha Uttarakhand State president VK Bahuguna has written to the chief election commissioner of India requesting that the report of the inquiry into unusual increase in voters in Uttarakhand during 2011-2022 should be examined and that a fresh inquiry should be ordered. In the letter, Bahuguna states that the report of the Social Development for Communities (SDC) Foundation points out an unusual increase in voters list ranging from 30 per cent to 43 per cent during the last 10 years in Uttarakhand. The SDC Foundation report was based on secondary data obtained from the Election Commission’s website. Bahuguna states, “This increase is unusual and is also happening in some other border States like Punjab. We had first taken up the matter with the State administration by writing to the chief minister but we got a reply that the voters list is made by the booth level officers concerned and that everything is as per the procedures. We were not satisfied and wrote to you on December 26, 2022 requesting for a proper inquiry. You were kind enough to instruct the chief electoral officer of Uttarakhand in January 2023 for an immediate inquiry and report. On your instructions, I was contacted by the CEO and asked for the report of the SDC Foundation which was supplied.
The CEO issued directions to district election officers for constituting district, constituency and booth level committees to ascertain the facts. We hoped that proper verification would be done now to find how the people are getting documents to register themselves as voters in Uttarakhand.” He further cites a recent newspaper report which quotes the CEO stating that according to the population the voters list are correct and no irregularities have been noticed and that as such the work of the Election Commission is to only register the voters. “It this is true then it is a very casual statement by the CEO as anyone can procure some document through fraudulent means by bribing the officials and register themselves as voters. It has been happening in many States and many foreigners have become voters.
Political outfits are also involved in bringing more voters but URM is more concerned with raising this issue in strategic national interest and for protecting the cultural heritage of Uttarakhand and its ecology which is getting threatened with such influx of people. As any Indian can register as a voter in any part of the country provided he or she has proper documents, we want to know if important conditions have been fulfilled by those who have been issued the voter IDs,” Bahuguna states. He has requested that the inquiry report should be examined from the point of view of the aspects he has raised and that a fresh detailed inquiry should be ordered so that the people know the real cause of increase in the number of voters and so that the cultural heritage of Uttarakhand is preserved.
