Jalalabad, December
9
Nearly 3,000 names in the revised electoral rolls of 15 wards of the local Municipal Council for its coming election, have been found to be fake during the two-day probe conducted by Mr Alok
Shekhar, Director-General (Schools), Punjab.
Though Mr Shekhar, who left for Chandigarh this evening after conducting the probe, refused to divulge any information regarding the evidence collected by him in connection with the fake votes, information gathered by TNS revealed that about 3,000 fake votes had been detected.
Mr Shekhar said he was yet to compile the information collected by him with the help of teams from the ground and he would submit his report to the State Election Commissioner shortly. He added that 15 teams were constituted to verify the allegations levelled by the complainants, who met individually and another 15 teams were put on the job to cross-check the reports submitted by the first 15 teams.
A number of residents of this border town who met Mr Shekhar today and yesterday alleged that their names had been deleted from the revised voters’ list despite the fact that they had exercised their franchise in the last Assembly elections and had voters’ identity cards issued by the Election Commission of India. On other hand, the names of those persons, who were already registered as voters in various villages of this subdivision, had been shown as voters from this town also in the new list.
Mr Shekhar was deputed by the state Election Commissioner, Mr C.L. Bains, to hold a probe into the allegations levelled by Mr Prem Valecha, president of the local Municipal Council. Mr Valecha alleged that a large number of fake votes had been made by a section of ruling politicians.
Yesterday, the Ferozepore MP, Mr Zora Singh Mann, Mr
Valecha, Mr Subash Aggarwal, BJP President, Mr Sandeep Maluja, and hundreds of other residents of this town met Mr Shekhar to inform him of the fact that the names of a large number of genuine voters had been deleted while fake persons had been enrolled as voters in the new voters’ lists.
On other hand, senior Congress leaders, including Mr Prithivi Chand Doomra and Mr Aneesh Sidana, alleged that Mr Valecha and others were unnecessarily raising a hue and cry. They added that Mr Valecha and others were levelling false allegations as they feared that they would be routed in the coming Municipal Council elections.
Mr
Shekhar, who took the help of senior officials of the Punjab State Electricity
Board (PSEB), Education Department, State Agriculture Department, Punjab Sewerage Board and other departments in the inquiry, also went to various wards to make an on-the-spot inquiry. He found that only one woman was residing at the residence where about 79 persons had been registered as genuine voters in the revised electoral rolls. All 79 voters were fake.
On other hand, Mr Valecha and his associates today file 3,657 appeals before the state Election Commissioner, Mr
Bains, in connection with fake votes.
