Voter anomaly in Kothagudem: Votes registered in area with no houses

Anomalies in voter lists in Kothagudem and Edulapuram, with votes registered in areas with no residents and migrants voting in multiple locations. Officials plan action, with objections due by January 7

Kothagudem: Strange anomalies have surfaced in the municipal voter list in a municipal division in Kothagudem Municipal Corporation (KMC). Even as there are no houses in an area in that division, yet votes are registered in the draft voter list released by the election officials recently. The area in question is Medara Basthi in division 51 of the KMC.

For the past 30 years, nearly 120 houses families had built houses and settled on 21.6 acres of land belonging to South Central Railways (SCR). The SCR officials following the court directions demolished the houses in July 2021 to use the land for future needs.
At present in block 7-1 of division 51, in Medara Basthi and Tummalanagar, there are no houses, but the votes of as many as 249 persons are still registered in those areas and have been published in the current voter list.

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Even though the voters and residents who previously lived there have migrated to other areas, the municipal and election officials are still maintaining their votes on the list. The leaders of a political party in the ward took the matter to the attention of the municipal commissioner K Sujatha.

The municipal commissioner told the ward leaders that the issue would be taken to the notice of the district Collector Jitesh V Patil for a proper action. The ward leaders, surprised at the lapses in the voter list, stated that the election officials should have checked the voter list at ground level.
Meanwhile in Edulapuram Municipality in Khammam another issue came to the fore. The urban local body with 32 wards was formed two years ago with a cluster of 12 villages. Half of these villages are completely rural, while the other half are semi-urban.

Many residents in old Polepally, Edulapuram and Pedda Thanda areas have migrated from other areas to settle here and applied for voting rights without transferring their voter registration from their native places.
It is said that for the past few years, voters here have been exercising their voting rights in both their former and current places of residence. They cast their votes in the recently held gram panchayat elections and are now ready to do so again in the upcoming municipal elections.

Representatives of different political parties referred to the matter during a meeting with municipal officials on Monday. Municipal Commissioner Srinivas Reddy stated that any objections regarding the draft voter list could be submitted in writing by January 7.