Draft roll entry mistakes
Pune: Kondhwa Khurd has voters who are 126 years old. A voter from Hadapsar assembly constituency who checked the list on Monday found that his age was registered as 126 years, despite the earlier electoral roll carrying his correct age. Mini Kartikeyan, one such voter, said she would have to fill Form 8 despite filling up her enumeration form in English in bold letters. Election officials said voters can file Form 8 during the claims-and-objections period to correct particulars in an existing electoral roll. Rohan Joshi, an active member who helps citizens with the voting process, said that there are several such cases and thousands won’t check the roll, leave alone fill Form 8 to correct them.
That makes them the oldest humans on the planet and they are in sizeable numbers too, according to the draft electoral roll. Voters who found their names in the list were relieved but many said their particulars, correctly recorded before Special Intensive Revision (SIR), now contain glaring errors. Activists said such errors could be linked to the large-scale digitisation exercise and data-entry work undertaken within a tight timeframe. They said voters should not have to bear the burden of correcting mistakes that may have occurred during data entry. “This is a problem that will only grow,’’ he said.
Several voters from certain communities have also complained that their names were spelled incorrectly, despite clearly providing their details during the enumeration exercise. The form covers corrections to name, gender, age/date of birth, relationship details and address, besides shifting of residence and replacement of an EPIC. Misspelled names, wrong ages and vague addresses marked the draft electoral roll published on Monday.