For no fault of mine, I have scored more than a “hat-trick” innot voting in the past elections – KDMC elections in 2010, the Lok Sabha Elections, 2009, 2004, Assembly elections 2005 and KDMC elections in 2005. Every time I went to the polling centre to cast my vote, I found my name missing!. Everytime the authorities told me my housing society could not be “identified”, despite carrying a whole bunch of documents establishing my identity. Other members of my society have also been facing the same problem. How is this possible when most of us had voted in all the previous election till 2004-2005? Why do the authorities find it so difficult to maintain a list of residents in a given area in the age of computerisation? And especially when we had submitted the duly filled form for our enrolment, time and again and several times, and through none other than the local corporators?
Can’t the election commission allow at least those with valid voter IDs to vote, whether or not his/her name features on the voter list? After an awareness drive was launched in our locality and through several websites and NGOs etc., this time, we decided to give it another try and once againhave submitted photos and documents two months ago. But, we are still to receive any confirmation. Nor do we see our names in the concerned websites to confirm our enrolment!
What should we do now? How long should we wait as the polling date is fast approaching? The experience has totally discouraged us, to say the least and scores of legitimate citizens are being deprived of exercising their fundamental right to vote–especially when this 2014 general elections prove to be very crucial and important to many Indian citizens.
God alone knows when we will be able to cast our vote. Will any political party come forward to help us as we are more concerned and serious this time, to cast our vote at any cost ?
S. KRISHNA KUMAR
