Close to 1.83L names deleted from city voter roll

As many as 1.83 lakh names have been deleted from the electoral roll in the BBMP limits, according to the draft electoral rolls published on Wednesday.

Most names for deletion have come from Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency, with 16,145 applications.

Speaking at the press meet, N Manjunath Prasad, District Election Officer and BBMP Commissioner, said: “The numbers are surprising. We will conduct a probe to know the reason behind this.”

During the Assembly elections earlier this year, as many as 9,564 voter ID cards were recovered from an apartment along with a handbill featuring Munirathna, the Congress party candidate from the constituency, just days ahead of the polls.

When questioned if the deletion was due to this, Prasad said: “There are some cases going on in the court. We will also conduct a probe.”

“We have published the draft electoral rolls for the upcoming elections at www.ceokarnataka.gov.in. The voters, who wish to add, delete or make changes in the voter’s list in Bangalore, can do so at the BBMP offices and online,” Prasad added.

Apart from RR Nagar, Basavanagudi, Vijayanagar and BTM Layout also show an increase in the deletion process with 16,301, 12,808 and 11,696 applications respectively.

The total number of voters have decreased from what was there during the Assembly polls.

“There were 91.13 lakh voters during Vidhana Sabha elections. It has now come down to 89.57 lakh. Voters can add or delete their names until November 20. The sex ratio has also increased from what was during the Assembly polls until now with 1,000:921 to 1,000: 925 (male: female),” he said.

The BBMP commissioner said the corporation would now hold annual maintenance record of stormwater drains.

Chief Secretary T M Vijaybhaskar had recently held a meeting with the BBMP officials and the Land Settlement and Survey officials to know the status of removal of encroachments on stormwater drains.

“The BBMP did not have a proper mechanism until now to monitor SWDs. This annual maintenance record, which will be handed over to contractors, will help us in bringing order in the system,” the commissioner said.

He said he had requested Vijay Bhaskar to give him a month’s time to begin the removal of encroachments on SWDs.

“The revenue officials will mark the buffer zone and specify the violations. And soon after that, we will begin to clear the encroachments,” he said.

1,500 blackspots

The BBMP said it would remove about 1,500 garbage blackspots within 15 days.

Randeep D, special commissioner, solid waste management, BBMP, said: “We have identified these spots, and we will try to remove them in 15 days.”

He said tenders would be called in all wards to set up ward wise waste processing units.

“All compactors and auto tippers do not have the GPS machine yet. We are aiming to reach 100% in this soon,” he added.