Verification process in jeopardy

By R. K. Radhakrishnan

CHENNAI, DEC. 12. The process of verification of nearly four lakh forms submitted for inclusion, revision and correction in the electoral rolls appears to be in jeopardy in the city and suburbs since problems are cropping up one after another.

In the latest instance, one section ``pulled in'' for the special duty, literally refused to take up the work.

In the special electoral roll inclusion drive, as many as 3,97,612 people filed form 6 applications for inclusion; another 5,892 submitted form 7 and yet another 20,514 filed form 8.

Usually, the Corporation uses its tax collectors for the job of verification and all other election-related work. But this time, given the new order that all the applications had to be physically verified, the Corporation had to pull in more personnel. As many as a thousand school teachers have been pulled in for the verification. Ironically, all this has been going on, though officially, the Collector is the District Election Officer.

This time, it is the Multi-Purpose Health Workers of the Corporation, who are up in arms. While initially they demanded that they be exempted from the election work considering the `indispensable' nature of their duties, they scaled down their demand later and asked to be posted near their places of work.

A section of representatives of MPHWs today gathered in front of the chamber of the Corporation Commissioner at Ripon Building and demanded that they be exempted from the duty. When the Commissioner reminded that election duty was not negotiable, they scaled it down to being posted in their respective zones. ``We cannot go to far flung areas,'' said one. ``Post us in our divisions,'' she added. ``How do you expect us to verify 700 forms in a single day,'' asked another. ``How can we give up our prior commitments and go on this work,'' enquired another.

The Commissioner, Dr. J. Radhakrishnan, said that as far as possible, they would be posted near their divisions. He told them to verify as many forms as possible. ``You can easily verify 150 to 200 forms,'' he told them. But the grumbling workers were not convinced. ``It is not possible to visit that much houses, make enquiries and then decide on the authenticity of forms,'' an MPHW said.

They wanted to know why they should be involved in a work of this nature for which they neither had the exposure nor the training. The Corporation authorities told them that they were alone not involved in the process. All levels of officials and staff were doing the job.

An immediate fall out of the electoral roll verification process is that no work moves in the Corporation now. ``We-are-busy-with- election-work'' has become a stock reply in the zonal offices and the headquarters. Officials too say that there is nothing much they can do. ``We will have to wait till the process is over,'' one of them said. But no one is hopeful that the process will be completed by the time that the Election Commission has specified.

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