About 5 lakh Hyderabad voters may miss voting this time

By M H Ahssan

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) cleared that over 4.6 lakh voters whose photographs were not made available to the corporation may not be able to vote in the coming elections.

Of the 30,04,998 voters in the 15 assembly constituencies falling within Hyderabad district, the photographs of 25,41,347 voters (about 84 per cent) were taken by the corporation staff in various phases. “It will not be possible for the GHMC to issue before the elections electoral photo identity cards (EPICs) to the 4.6 lakh voters whose photographs were not taken,” GHMC additional commissioner (elections) Neetu Prasad told TOI.

The number of voters was decided as per the final publication of the electoral rolls on January 22, 2009. According to officials, 1.96 lakh voters got registered during the revision of the electoral rolls. “Of these, 1.2 lakh EPICs are ready and will be dispatched to the voters. The I-D cards of the remaining 70,000 voters will also be made ready in the next few weeks. However, the 4.6 lakh voters will have to sit out this elections,” the officials said.

The corporation also has a backlog of EPICs to be delivered to the voters. “At least five lakh EPICs are lying in the municipal circle offices and designated photographic location (DPL) centres. While some were distributed in the Musheerabad, Secunderabad and Khairatabad constituencies before the byelections last year, the bulk of them remains to be distributed, the officials said.

In some localities, though many voters got their EPICs, fresh ones have to be issued as the constituency changed in many instances due to the delimitation exercise.

For example, many voters in Jubilee Hills were earlier voting in the Khairatabad assembly but will now fall under the newly-created Jubilee Hills assembly constituency.