M A I N   N E W S

EC orders will hit rural women
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Feb 11 — For the first election in the new millennium Haryana has some 1.11 crore voters registered with the Election Department will 88.01 per cent voters (97.77 lakh) having been given identity cards. Election officials have been issuing these cards since 1994. But this is the first time these would be compulsory.

According to Chief Electoral Officer Bhaskar Chatterjee, those who have no identity cards would produce other documents to establish their identity — ration cards, driving licences, property documents, passports and any other proof that has the official seal.

One problem is that the cards were first issued in 1994. How many people have kept these with them since then is difficult to assess. How many particularly the poor sections in villages and bastis have these cards is also not clear.

Asked whether the new orders would achieve its objectives — eliminate bogus voting and ensure that genuine voters are not denied their voting rights — Mr Chatterjee said since the orders had come only last evening, he would not make any comment. “We are making a beginning,” is all he said.

KARNAL: A large number of voters in Haryana will be bereft of their voting rights following the instructions of the Election Commission to present identity cards at polling stations. The worst hit will be those in villages and localities as well as the slums in cities where the percentage may be between 40 and 50 per cent. Such a situation may affect the political fortunes of different parties in the fray. Parties with a strong rural base will feel the affect more than those urban based.

A survey of the area in Chan Sarai and Ror-basti in Karnal shows that a large number of people are oblivious of the latest instructions of the commission.

The sudden announcement by the Chief Election Commissioner has left many voters in the lurch. In the two localities, over 25 per cent of women voters do not have documents to prove their identity. The instructions are likely to hit women voters and uneducated jobless youth in the countryside. Furthermore, the instructions have jeopardised the interests of the floating population in cities.

In Chan Sarai, 70-year old Rukmani Devi is unsure what kind of identification she would produce to prove her identity before the polling officers. In a large number of cases, families both in rural and urban areas have misplaced the cards since these were issued in 1994.

The government, of course, had been issuing instructions for cards but because of lack of publicity, many could not avail of this opportunity.

For instance in Karnal the last date to get identity cards was February 10. But because of lack of publicity, a large number of new voters could not do not so.

In villages, the women would be the worst-affected. For one, as per the latest policy of the Food and Supplies Department, Haryana, ration cards are issued only to those families who have suffixed photos of the entire family on the ration cards. This, of course, was done to heed out bogus ration cards. But in the process a large number of families unable to get all members together for a photograph have been left out.

Second, women from southern Haryana have veiled their faces in these photographs. This will make their identification difficult for the polling staff. Besides, barely 2 per cent of women in the rural areas are bank or post office account-holders to be able to provide any certificate for exercising franchise.

Hardly 1 per cent of the rural population is with passports. Therefore, this option to prove their identity is also ruled out. The possession of driving licences is an equally uncommon phenomenon.

Hence the EC directions will put many voters, especially female in rural areas, in a disadvantageous position.

The Election Commission while issuing the instructions seems to have forgotten about the rights of the floating population in each city. In each city in Haryana, people from Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh Rajasthan and even Tamil Nadu have settled to earn a livelihood.

During the parliamentary elections, many of them had got themselves registered as voters at their places of work. But in the process of migration from one place to another, a large number of them have not been able to get identity cards. A sizeable number also does not possess ration cards because few have the time or money to get a ration card made. This section would also be bereft of their voting right.

In fact, the polling percentage in the state is likely to drastically decline if the instructions of the Election Commission are followed in toto.

GURGAON: The district administration which had almost completed the spade work for the ensuing Assembly elections, suddenly finds it a tough task with the Election Commission making it mandatory for the voters to have photo-identity cards or other documents to cast their vote.

The Deputy Commissioner of Gurgaon-cum-District Election Officer, Mr T.C.Gupta, says about 87 per cent of the voters in the district have been issued identity cards.Those who have been left out will be provided with certificates from the authorities concerned to enable them to vote. He says, the state has already spent Rs 15 crore on the exercise of providing identity cards.The process is still on.

He says already the exercise of sending the list of voters has started in villages. Even if a person has the identity card but his name is not on the voters’ list, he will not be allowed to cast his vote.

Says Mr Ramesh Dahiya of Dhanwapur village and Vice- Chairman of the Block Samiti said: “Out of 1600 voters in his village, 150 are yet to get the identity cards. He is keeping his fingers crossed on the impact on the turnout the commission’s directive could have.

An elderly citizen of Dharampur, Mr Net Ram Tyagi, says 80 per cent of the voters in his village have been provided with the identity card.

Mr Jyot Ram Dahiya from Jharsa, one of the big villages in the Gurgoan Assembly segment, says 60 per cent of the voters have been issued identity cards.

The percentage of persons issued cards hovers from 60-80 per cent in various pockets of the city. Significantly, the figure is said to be abysmally low in the residential sectors of HUDA and urban estates housing plush colonies. The reason, it seems, is many residents of these affluent sectors and colonies do not seem much interested in exercising franchise. Also, a large number of them are not originally from Haryana.