Shimla May, 10: As expected, the elections to the Shimla Municipal Corporation (MC) have been deferred. The State Election Commission today announced the special revision of electoral rolls from June 15 to 23 to remove discrepancies following complaints by political parties and the public.
The fact that the MC elections will not be held on time to enable the constitution of the new House by June 4, when the term of the present House expires, became evident with the State Election Commission taking the plea that the correction in irregularities will have to be done to ensure fair and smooth elections. As such, the appointment of an Administrator is being considered a foregone conclusion, as this becomes imperative when the term of the present House expires on June 4, 2017. Since the revision of electoral rolls is to be undertaken between June 15 and 23, an Administrator will have to be appointed till the new rolls are ready and elections notified.
The electoral rolls will be finally published on June 23. All political parties, including the ruling Congress, CPM, the party to which the Mayor and Deputy Mayor belong, and the BJP, have been demanding removal of the gross irregularities in the rolls where the names of many persons are either missing or reflected at two places. Moreover, several cases of names of persons who are dead still figure in the electoral rolls have also come to light.
The Election Registration Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Shimla, prepared and notified the electoral rolls on May 5, 2017, showing 88,167 electors whereas the CEO of the state had on May 5, 2017, put this number at 85,546. “Since both electoral rolls were prepared with reference to the same qualifying date (January 1, 2017), the difference is quite big,” the official said. Moreover, 2,200 applications are still pending with the revising authorities.
The verification of electors already enrolled in the final electoral rolls and receipt of claims and objections by the revising authority will be done from May 15 to 24 , whereas the addition/deletion/correction of names will be undertaken from May 25 to 29. The process of serving notices to such electors will be completed from May 30 to June 3 and the disposal of the cases will be done from June 5 to 12.
News Source Tribune India
