Believe it or not. Bangaloreans do not lose their right to vote even after their death!
Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) has hardly deleted the names of the dead from the voters’ list in the last few years. This startling fact came to light recently after the Election Commission (EC) ordered intensive revision of the draft voters’ list.
“We have found that 12,000 dead persons’ names from the voters’ list in Bangalore have to be deleted and the work to find out more is underway,” said BBMP Special Commissioner (Administration) Ramprasad. He is also the district electoral officer for old BMP area.
As per the EC’s directions, urban local bodies can take up suo moto deletion of those dead in the voters’ list, based on the dead persons’ list available with them.
No deletions
Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami has also expressed shock at a media conference on Thursday. “I am very much concerned that during this period a large number of voters were added, but there were no deletions. The people of Karnataka seem to have taken a special drug because of which nobody has died.”
What will happen to those dead before 2006? “We presume the names of those dead prior to 2006 are deleted,” Mr Ramprasad said.
Official sources said the BBMP is rummaging through documents for only two years. Because it doesn’t have past data. “Actually, the BBMP has chosen a short cut to complete its job, as it was in 2006 that it had launched computerised registration of births and deaths,” sources added.
Crosses two lakh
As per the rough estimate, the number of dead in the voters’ list in Bangalore in the last five years easily crosses two lakh.
But, official sources said, the BBMP does not have consolidated data on the number of deaths. Officials in BBMP Statistical department said they get information on the number of death certificates issued from all the zonal offices only once in a year.
Over and above, though birth and death registration has been computerised, the system is yet to go online. As a result, consolidation of data from all the range offices takes one year’s time.


KEEPING THEM ALIVE


*The BBMP has not deleted the names of the dead from the voters’ list for the last few years.
*Has come up with 12,200 citizens as dead, after being pulled up by the EC.
*The BBMP will look into only two years’ data of deaths, for deletion.