Adv Carlos slams govt for failing to protect Goan voters from ECI’s SIR deletions
PANAJI: Aldona Congress MLA Adv Carlos Alvares Ferreira on Thursday hit out at the Goa government for failing to adequately protect the interest of Goa’s voters during the ongoing SIR exercise, claiming that in one ward in his constituency will likely see only 65 people left on the voters list if all the unmapped and deleted voters are excluded.
“I have got 159 names in part no. 20 of Aldona constituency, marked as dead, untraceable, etc. There is Nita Shripad Thali, Sikandar Shripad Thali, he’s a lawyer, my colleague, he goes to the court, he’s practising. Very well known, very well respected family in the village. Vidyasagar Thali, all have been marked as untraceable and absent. They have not gone for a holiday, they are all here. Glenn Thomas Gomes, Godfrey Thomas Gomes. Just knocked off the list by saying they are untraceable. Very much active in the village. Everyone knows them. How does the BLO not know them? What kind of work is he doing?” Adv Carlos asked.
“From this same booth. There are 150 absent dead, and not mapped 365. The draft roll has got 434 voters, if 434 voters and 365 are removed, we will have only 65 voters remaining on the roll in that booth,” he said.
“This list is published on the website, but their names are not in the draft SIR. They are just knocked off without a showcause notice, despite the election commission saying they will give a notice. They were very much there in the October list, they voted in the ZP elections, suddenly they are now off the list. They bring out one more list called the not-mapped list, which is not put in public domain. The people whose names are in the final draft SIR role, they are getting notices,” Adv Carlos also said.
“In the Bihar SIR case when it was being fought, the election Commission came to the Supreme Court and said, no voter will be deleted without giving notice. The attempt to do this, without giving notice, is a means to bypass the statutory provisions, it’s a means to disenfranchise people without giving notice, declare people dead if they are not really dead and knock them off the roll,” he also said.
“I can’t understand what kind of an exercise the election commission is doing, what exercise the BLO is doing and how this can be allowed. This is very dangerous. The State government should carry out an exercise of telling the ECI that your exercise is not proper, and is being done in a hurry. It is the duty of the state government to tell the election commission, you need to extend this time, for filing objections. I’ve told people who have been marked as dead to file objections and they are asking people to file a new form 8 as if they are a new elector. Thereafter in the next roll your name may come. Which means your name will not be in the SIR roll which comes in 2026. This is absolutely dangerous,” he also said.
“Even a person under a tree can be made a voter. You are deleting people who live in houses. I request this govt to take up the matter with ECI,” he said, finally.
Loading ...