JOIN USBallot blunder: KMC chief blames members
“We have spent over Rs one lakh and placed ads in a newspaper requesting doctors to update their addresses, but no one has bothered to do so. What can I do if they have not received the ballots. I too have certain limitations and can only go by the KMC rules,” he said.
He said that the director of Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases (RGICD), Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital medical superintendent and Lakeside Hospital director had not received the ballot since they had not updated their addresses.
While the first two doctors admitted that they had not updated their addresses, Lakeside Hospital director Dr H Paramesh said that he had furnished his new address to KMC a decade ago, which had not been updated in its records.
Aberrations galore
However, there were doctors, who in spite of not having changed their addresses since registering as doctors with KMC, had not received the ballot papers. For instance, Dr S Kumar, principal and dean of M S Ramaiah Medical College, said he had been staying in the same address for the last 50 years and not once had he received the ballot paper.
Updating data was an issue even when doctors had contested for the KMC nomination to the Medical Council of India three years ago.
“Out of the total number of registered members, not even three per cent of the ballot papers were received. When I asked for the voters’ list, I was told that I am not entitled for it. I applied under RTI and got the list after the election was over. So the election is a farce,” Dr Kumar said.
He recalled that he even went to the court to get the ballot papers sent through speed post. Dr Srinivasa Gowda, who had contested for the MCI nomination, said that he too was a victim of ‘archaic’ KMC electoral rolls. But that was not to say that there weren’t any defects in the way elections were being conducted by KMC, he added.
In another case, of the three doctors from Rajarajeshwari Medical College and Hospital who reside in the same house (father, son and daughter-in-law), only two have received the ballot paper. There are many cases where doctors residing in the same address since their registration with KMC have not received their ballot papers.
One of the contestants told Deccan Herald that KMC has sent ballot papers to teaching category voters according to the list updated in 2007. However, the ballots for non-teaching category of voters have been despatched on the basis of the electoral list updated in 2010.
Members who have updated their addresses a couple of months ago have also not received their ballots. When contacted, Medical Education Minister S A Ramdas said the Council decided to conduct election at his insistence and that he would look into the matter.