BBMP blacklists Chilume trust

Following the voter data theft allegations and subsequent inquiry on the Chilume Educational, Cultural and Rural Development Trust, the BBMP on Tuesday blacklisted the organisation.

An order passed by the BBMP chief stated that the trust is prohibited from participating in any awareness programmes organised by the civic body and the service and procurement tenders floated by the BBMP.

The Palike has also blacklisted organisations run by Chilume’s directors from collaborating with it.

The trust, given the responsibility of creating voter awareness and linking Aadhaar numbers with voter ID cards, had instead collected electorally sensitive information on caste, age, gender, employment, education, and identity documents. Voters’ views on the performance of their MLAs were also said to be collected. It was done by forging ID cards and people posing as Booth Level Officers (BLO).

Following the allegations, the BBMP terminated their services on November 2 and eventually filed a police complaint charging them of breach of trust.