India News
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has sought a declaration from West Bengal government employees confirming that they are not duplicate voters, that is, voters having their names in the voters’ list at two places.
The declaration will have to be given in specific formats provided by the poll panel. At the same time, it has also made it clear that if, in any case, any state government employee has his or her name in two places, it would be his or her responsibility to approach the booth-level officer concerned and get his or her name deleted from one place.
In the prescribed form provided by the commission, every state government employee will have to give details of his or her current status as a voter of West Bengal. In the same form, he or she will also have to declare whether he or she is enrolled as a voter in more than one place or not.
In case the place of voting has been changed for any reason, including a shift of residence, it will also have to be mentioned in the prescribed form. In case of duplicate names, the state government employees will also have to declare whether they had already applied for the deletion of names from one place or not.
A copy of the prescribed form is available with IANS. Currently, the total number of state government employees in West Bengal stands at 10 lakh.
"By asking for this declaration, the Commission wants to fix the accountability of the state government employees so that none of them is a duplicate voter. In case any state government gives wrong information, that will also be in the declaration format with the Commission. In such cases where wrong information is given in the declaration forms, the Commission might take appropriate legal action against the state government employees concerned," said an insider from the office of the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
Advertisment
