Enrollment in Voter List
The Election Commission has stated that as on date there are a total of 1,41,733 electors, marked with ‘D’ in the Electoral Rolls of Assam. ‘D’ denotes that his/her citizenship status is ‘Doubtful/Disputed’ and they are not allow to cast their votes.
The District/Assembly Constituency-wise information on the ‘D’ voters at present is attached as Annexure-I. The category of ‘D’ voter emanated from the Election Commission of India’s instruction issued vide No.23/AS/96/Vol-III Dated 12th November, 1997 and as per the Commission’s Order No. 23/AS/96-Vol.-III dated 5th January, 1998 the voters categorized ‘D’ are not allowed to cast their votes.
The Election Commission has stated that Enrolment of large number of citizens from Pakistan and Bangladesh are in the electoral roll of Assam is not a fact.
The Election Commission has stated that on receipt of order from the Tribunal or from any competent court declaring a person as foreigner, verification is carried out by the concerned Electoral Registration Officer immediately as to whether his/her name has been enrolled in the Electoral Roll or not and if the name is found in the roll then his/her name is deleted from the relevant part of the electoral roll after observing the requisite formalities. This process is followed strictly to remove the name of the foreign citizens from the electoral roll.
This information was given by Union Minister of Law & Justice, Shri D. V. Sadananda Gowda in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
ST/rs