EC to send 30 lakh letters to fix ‘error’ of deleted names

The EC has dispatched 3.5 lakh letters so far, and targets to send 30 lakh by July 15. “We have details of people whose names have been deleted over the past two years. We are sending them a communication along with a voter registration form,” an EC official said.
Since these letters are being sent by ordinary post to addresses the EC has in its database, only people living at the same address from which they registered as voters will get an opportunity to get enrolled again. “A person who has moved residence will not get this letter. Also, this would prove his or her name was rightly deleted,” the official said.

Those who receive the correspondence will have time till 10 days before nominations for the Assembly polls to register themselves. “They can either fill up this form and send it back to us by post or can drop it at any of our local offices,” an official said. The term of the 228-member Assembly gets over on December 7 and elections are expected in the last quarter of the year.
“It is for the first time such an exercise is being undertaken. The move is in line with the EC’s commitment to voter-friendly measures,” EC’s director general Akshay Rout said.

EC officials maintained that a substantial number of deletions were made correctly. “Electoral rolls were bloated because of fake, redundant or duplicate names. In many cases, people had moved their residence or houses were found locked when the revision of electoral rolls was taking place,” an official said.

The EC will replicate this exercise in other states in coming months.