230 Voters Stay in Single House

ALTOGETHER 230 people reside in a single house in Bihar's Jamui district, as recorded by a booth-level officer (BLO) of Chaudiha panchayat during the recently concluded special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.

- RAMASHANKAR @ Patna

Anomalies like this one in the voters' list came to surface after the Election Commission published the draft electoral rolls on August 1. More than 200 residents of Aamin village under Chaudiha panchayat complained to the district administration that their address has been mentioned as house number 3 of ward number 3 in the draft rolls.

According to the residents, they live in separate houses, but the draft electoral rolls showed them staying in the house number 3. "How is it possible? It shows that the BLO filled in enumeration forms sitting in office and did not bother to conduct a house-to-house survey," said a resident of Aamin village.

Noor Hasan (70), another resident, said the BLO did not visit her house to distribute enumeration forms. She alleged that the BLO visited a house on the outskirts of the village and filled forms without signatures of electors. "This is sheer callousness," she said.