Jharkhand SIR: Over 1.4 lakh voters with anomalies in Latehar district
Daltonganj, July 7: Latehar district has emerged as one of the districts in Jharkhand with a significant number of electors with anomalies…
Daltonganj, July 7: Latehar district has emerged as one of the districts in Jharkhand with a significant number of electors with anomalies in the electoral rolls ahead of the Election Commission of India’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
Latehar district has more than five lakh registered voters, of whom over 1.40 lakh have been identified with anomalies in the Jharkhand electoral roll.
Among the district’s two Assembly constituencies, Manika Assembly constituency has more than 64,000 electors with anomalies, while Latehar Assembly constituency accounts for over 76,000 such voters.
Neighbouring Palamu district has a little over 3.80 lakh electors with anomalies. Election officials say that as the number of registered voters increases, the likelihood of electoral roll anomalies also rises.
Voters Cite Both Personal and Institutional Reasons
Interactions by The Jharkhand Story Network with electors indicate that the anomalies stem from both individual circumstances and institutional shortcomings in the voter verification process.
One family in Daltonganj said its names disappeared from the electoral rolls during the 2003 Special Summary Revision. The family, however, did not pursue the matter to determine how the omission occurred.
Another elector alleged an error in categorisation during the electoral roll revision.
“I am neither absent nor have I shifted, but I have been marked as ‘AS’. I am still happy that I have not been declared a dead elector,” the voter said.
The issue of voter list anomalies is not confined to Latehar, with similar cases being reported across several districts in Jharkhand.
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Election Officials Seek Public Cooperation
Latehar District Election Officer Sandip Kumar urged voters to cooperate with Booth Level Officers (BLOs) during the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.
“This is a massive exercise to purify the electoral rolls. Our teams are carrying out the work in a very transparent manner,” Kumar said.
Elector Mapping Shows Progress
Despite the high number of anomalies, Latehar has recorded considerable progress in elector mapping under the ongoing Election Commission drive.
The district has achieved an overall elector mapping rate of 85.7 per cent. Latehar Assembly constituency has crossed 88 percent, while Manika Assembly constituency trails by around six percentage points.
BLOs and Volunteers Deployed Across Difficult Terrain
Officials said the district’s challenging terrain has not slowed the Jharkhand voter verification exercise.
Latehar has 679 polling booths and an equal number of Booth Level Officers, according to Deputy Election Officer Marry Madaki. The district has also deployed more than 600 volunteers to assist the BLOs.
As the entire district falls under the Fifth Schedule area, Van Patta (forest land rights) documents assume particular significance. The Election Commission of India (ECI) has included Van Patta among the 12 acceptable documents for the electoral roll revision.
A tribal leader, requesting anonymity, said:
“A tribal generally lives by the tree, the river and the rock. Such an exercise involving parental mapping is not so
