Vote Bengaluru volunteers report widespread fundamental errors on electoral rolls
Posted on: March 10 2008 | Author: megha | Comments:0
As a first step towards having clean electoral rolls and polls, Vote Bengaluru’s (VB) volunteers from various resident welfare associations in the city have carried out an analysis of the latest electoral rolls of selected polling booths in Bangalore (published on 18.02.08).
Earlier, VB had conducted an orientation programme (16th Feb 2008) to its volunteers and provided them an information kit that guides them step by step to carry out the verification process. Volunteers from more than 30 organizations had participated in it.
On 10 February 08, Vote Bengaluru had faxed its observation to the Chief Election Commissioner, New Delhi, highlighting the nature of errors (observed in many parts of Shanthinagar ward by the ShRED and CIVIC) and some suggested remedies based on the rolls published as on 01.01.2008. These errors have been again reported by the volunteers in various wards of Bangalore who have studied the rolls published on 18.02.08.
On 26th Feb 2008, the last date for submitting objections to the latest rolls, VOTE Bengaluru members submitted a report highlighting the fundamental errors that exist in the rolls published on 18.02.08 to the office of the Chief Electoral Officer - Karnataka for remedial actions.
Fundamental Anomalies
1. The Part or Polling Booth Area is not geographically unique.
2. The Part or Polling Booth Area often does not encompass a geographically contiguous area.
3. The Map of the Part or Polling Booth Area is neither geographically accurate nor drawn to scale.
Resultant Errors
The above three and other anomalies are giving rise to the following problems/errors/confusions:
a. Impossible task for enumerators: Since the map of the Polling Booth Area is geographically inaccurate, it will be an impossible task for any enumerator to identify the particular road or part of a road that he has to cover and do an accurate job of enumeration.
b. Impossible for citizens to identify their Part Number: It will be impossible for citizens to identify under which part number their house falls.
c. Repetitions of streets in different Parts or different Sections: Since the geographical area defined as polling booth area is not unique, there is repetition of the same streets/locations in different part numbers. This leads to overlapping of polling booth footprints, duplication of streets resulting in total confusion. Even short roads consisting of about 20 houses are shown in different Parts or Sections.
d. Sections created without logic or rhyme: Areas which are not geographically contiguous are clubbed together to form a Part. There does not seem to be any logic, rhyme or reason in the way Sections are created within a Part. The same roads are being repeated in different Parts or different Sections of the same Part with a few house numbers under each.
e. Faulty maps lead to the following errors:
- In the maps accompanying the Part, roads are shown to be interlinked with those of which they have no geographical connection. Hence, areas which are not geographically contiguous are clubbed together and the map is manipulated to illustrate as though they were contiguous.
- Many cross-roads are not even marked on the map and a false impression is created that all the persons listed in a Section are living on a main road, which is false. Or a road marked as a Section is not shown on the map.
- The geographical path of the road is not accurately depicted. All roads are shown as straight roads. Their starting and ending points are wrongly represented. Roads parallel to one another are shown as being perpendicular to one another and vice versa.
- A single road on the map is often shown to represent several cross-roads concurrently. For instance, a single road is marked as 1st to 7th Cross, Lakshmi Rd.
f. Sections with wrong road-headings: Sections with certain road headings actually contain either names of persons belonging to other streets or there is a mixture of names of persons belonging to various roads under a single road as heading.
g. Sections with illogical and non-existent nomenclature of roads and house nos.
- Names of layouts containing multiple roads are given as Section headings.
- Individual flat nos. within apartment complexes are shown as street numbers
- Certain roads are wrongly repeated in the list under different names such as Lakshmi Main Road and Lakshmi Rd.
- Combinations of roads are given as Section headings. Each of these roads will also be given separate Sections.
- Strange and non-existent nomenclatures are assigned to roads as Section headings, such as “Lakshmi Mn. Rd. I Cross Rd. Swasthi Rd.” and “3rd 4th Cross Rd. Church Rd”, “Bangiyappa Garden Lakshmi Rd. 1-7th Cross”.
h. Postal address not used: In a number of cases, instead of using the current postal address of the road, old revenue survey names or municipal khata or other names of streets are being used. This is causing confusion. For some roads, the municipal names and numbers are listed under some Sections while the postal address of the same road is listed under a different Section. Hence persons living on the same road will find their names in different Sections or Parts.
Suggestions for remedy
To set right the anomalies, we suggest the following drastic but essential reforms in the electoral roll preparation. The Parts need to be re-organised to weed out duplication of street names, to maintain accuracy of the rollsi
1. Geographically unique Part: A Part should encompass a geographically unique and contiguous area.
2. Geographically accurate or GIS Map to be basis for Polling Booth Area: The Map of a Part should either be based on the GIS Map of the area or at least be geographically accurate and drawn to scale, with house numbers marked on it.
3. Colour-coded Polling Booth Area (PBA): Mark each Polling Booth Area in a different colour on the ward map and print the Ward Map and Polling Booth Area map in the electoral roll of that Part.
4. Section to contain single road or unique portion of road: A Section within a Part should encompass a unique portion of a single road which is not replicated in any other Part or another Section of the same Part. A Section within a Part should not list a conglomeration or combination of roads.
5. Ward number to be included in Part identification no.: In the unique identification number of each Part, the ward number could also be shown, since the municipal ward is the smallest administrative unit in urban areas. Three digits could be provided to indicate the ward number between the assembly constituency number and part number: For example:
To indicate Part No. 46 in Ward 70 in Assembly Constituency No. 84 (Shanthinagar) - Suggested unique identification number : A084070046
(In this regard, while delimiting Assembly constituencies, the municipal ward should be taken as the building block. Currently, a single municipal ward is often split between two or more Assembly constituencies.)
6. Postal address to be basis for naming Sections: Any one system, preferably the latest postal address should be used at all times to identify the roads within Sections and not municipal or revenue numbers.
7. Part delineation without repetition of roads: It is suggested that all the roads in an area could be grouped into Parts in such a manner that no road or portion of it is repeated in two different Parts/Sections.
8. Unique identification number for portions of roads: If there is a long road which has to necessarily appear in several Parts or Sections, each portion of the road in the different Part/Section should be given a unique identification number, such as Lakshmi Rd.(1st portion), Lakshmi Rd.(2nd portion), etc. This identification number should be written on both the street and house and also included on the citizen’s voter id card to prevent the same portion from being repeated in several Parts/Sections resulting in a blinding confusion (and search for their names) among the voters.
9. Both sides of a road to be in single PBA or Section: Part or Section boundaries should not be drawn in the middle of a road, in case of which houses on either side of the road would be distributed into different Part or Section numbers. Care should be taken to include both sides of a road in the same Part or Section so that persons living across from each other do not find their names in different Parts or Sections.
10. Cover page to carry page nos. of Sections: The cover page could list the Sections along with the page number on which they begin.
11. Names of flats to be carried as headings: Names of persons living in flats could be given a separate heading carrying both name and street number of the flat. The individual names of flat-dwellers could carry the individual flat nos. against them.
12. Penalisation of officials: Strict action should be taken and/or monetary penalty imposed on officials duplicating the same portions of roads in different Parts and / or in different Sections of the same Part. Penalties should be imposed for every error, including for repetition of names or missing names.
VB believes that the citizens’ involvement in the process of revising rolls will contribute to its quality. Therefore, VB requests the authorities to initiate a process in which the Booth Level Officer could get in touch with the local residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) in preparing/verifying the rolls; preparing the booth map; aligning the sections, etc. VB will mobilize such volunteers wherever possible, report the errors on the existing rolls and suggest corrective actions. VB also requests the authorities to verify, validate and then incorporate these changes in the rolls. This initiative would definitely go a long way in minimizing the errors on the voters list and thus contribute to truly free and fair elections.