The Election Commission (EC) in Rajasthan has pulled up district collectors for not doing appropriate mapping exercise in a serious manner. Out of the 33 districts, 26 have failed to revert back proper feedback to EC.
EC is firm to maintain law and order during the assembly elections and for that EC has recently directed the collectors to identify the number of vulnerable hamlets, voters and families. Also the identification of the number of persons which could be source of trouble in election were also directed by EC.
“It is surprising, even after doing a survey for 20 days, the sector officials have not identified any such hamlets or miscreants. It appears sector officers are not performing their duties or police superintendents are not providing them required data,” a letter written to the district collector reads. There are major polling centers such a Jaipur ( East) , Jaipur ( West ) , Sikar , Alwar , Jodhpur ( East) and Jodhpur ( rural) among others, where the officials have not listed any single miscreant and vulnerable hamlet.
“The EC will not remind in this regard. Strict action will be taken against officials who do not take the exercise seriously,” the letter reads.
A video conferencing will also schedule on November 5 to review the progress.
The district electoral officer specified that the vulnerability mapping was one of the regular exercises taken up by the Election Commission in all poll-bound states. It is to be done to identify voters and pockets which are vulnerable to outside influence during polls, the officer said.
Outside influence includes issuing threats, cases of inducement and trying to guide voters in support of any particular political party or candidate.
After the mapping , EC also send its field officials to such hamlets on the polling day if voters of vulnerable sections of a particular area do not come to vote even though no apparent threat is visible on the polling day.
A direct interaction with such voters would give an insight into the reasons for their not turning up at the polling booth, the commission said. “If such voters reveal that they are not voting due to threat issued by any individual or group well before the poll date, the local administration would be asked to inquire into the matter and take appropriate action against those responsible,” an official added.
src: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/24958005.cms