Migrated electors retain village voter IDs fearing loss of welfare benefits

Officials in Khammam and Kothagudem districts are intensifying the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to weed out duplicate voter IDs. Many migrants to urban areas continue to retain voting rights in their native villages, fearing loss of welfare benefits linked to rural enrolment.

Khammam: Many individuals who hold voting rights in two locations in the erstwhile Khammam district are inclined to retain their vote in the villages out of fear of losing benefits from welfare schemes.

As the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls aims to identify and remove duplicate and ineligible voters, those with two voter IDs are left with no option but to give up their voting right at one of the places where they got enrolled as voters.

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According to the officials monitoring the SIR programme most of those who migrated to urban areas from villages have multiple voter registrations and they continue to maintain both out of ignorance.

The booth level officers (BLOs) engaged in SIR activity stated that those with duplicate voter IDs do not want their voting right removed from their village due to the narrative that access to government schemes depends on having a vote in villages among other factors.

For instance, an individual in towns would be eligible to get a ration card if his or her annual income is below Rs 2 lakh while it is Rs.1.50 lakh in rural areas. In addition to that, the voters with small or marginal land holdings and living in towns want to continue their voting rights in villages so that they could receive benefits from the agriculture department.

Of the total electorate one or two percent of voters might be holding duplicate voter IDs and the exact number could only be assessed at the end of SIR. Usually duplicate voter IDs were removed during summary revision of electoral rolls and special focus is being laid on removing duplicate voter IDs under SIR, Kothagudem deputy tahsildar, election cell, Ranga Prasad said.

He informed that of the 9,96,198 electors in Kothagudem district, as many as 5,44,047 enumeration forms submitted by the voters have been digitised as on Wednesday. As many as 1,104 BLOs are engaged in SIR activities across the district’s 1,104 polling stations.

Khammam deputy tahsildar, election cell, Ansar informed that nearly 70.91 enumeration forms have been digitised as on July 15 by 6 pm. Of the 12,43,781 electors, 8, 81, 985 forms digitised and around 1,460 BLOs have been engaged in SIR work.