Deputy Collector Seema Ahire is Returning Officer and Electoral-roll Registration Officer for the 115-Malegaon Outer Assembly Constituency, Tehsildar Nitinkumar Deore is Assistant E-rRO. (Pic: The Voice of Malegaon).
Fourteen of 331 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) of 115-Malegaon Outer Assembly Constituency, who were given the task of updating voters’ lists and undertaking house-to-house visits, have been booked for dereliction of their “national” duty.
All the fourteen have been booked under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950 for not doing works given to them for clearing voters’ lists of unwanted names and photos. A case was filed at the Chhavani Police Station by the Tehsil office authorities.
“Eyeing the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024 and its importance, the BLOs were expected to fulfill their obligations of purifying their respective electoral rolls or voters’ lists in a time bound manner but they failed to do so despite having been given several reminders,” said Seema Ahire, Deputy Collector, Land Acquisition II, Nashik Municipal Corporation area.
Besides, Ahire added, these BLOs failed to turn up at periodic work review meetings from time to time held at the election branch in the Prant Office.
As part of the gigantic preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections 2024, Ahire has kickstarted a massive campaign under which BLOs and their Supervisors have been asked to remove Photo Similar Entries and Demographic Similar Entries by undertaking house-to-house visits and verification of voters in person.
Each BLO has been given the task of verifying more than eighty voters to remove PSEs and DSEs in areas or villages assigned to them.
Tehsildar Nitinkumar Deore said the action against these “erring” BLOs has been taken only after several reminders were given to them, and after no proper response was received from them despite having been given notices.
“In place of the fourteen BLOs, new Booth Level Officers have been taken on board. Each and every BLO is expected to give priority to election related works given the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections,” Deore said.
The other task that has been assigned to these BLOs was to check whether Aadhaar of voters was linked to their Elector’s Photo Identity Card or EPIC, simply the elector’s data. Deputy Tehsildar Varada Soman and Clerk Kiran Salve oversaw the work related to updation of voters’ lists.
BLO Balasaheb Zade who was given the responsibility of updating the Voter List No 250 in the Malegaon Camp area is a resident of Ajang-Vadel. Zade is among 14 BLOs who have been booked for dereliction of “national” duty.
He said back in 2021 he got the order for the BLO’s work by mistake as he was staying in Ajang-Vadel and was given the work of a BLO in Malegaon Camp area, which according to him was causing inconvenience to him. He said he was ready to do the work but in the village where he lives.
He said before going ahead and filing the police complaint, the authorities should have given them a chance to be heard. A farmer by profession, Zade claims a year ago he submitted his resignation in the tapal department at the Tehsil office but no action has been taken on it yet.
