Panaji : Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said the government will come out with a mechanism to ensure the timely deletion of names of deceased persons from the electoral roll.
“This mechanism will be developed in consonance with Election Commission of India (ECI) instructions,” Sawant said while responding to the calling attention by Mormugao MLA Sankalp Amonkar.
“While SIR (special intensive revision) is a commendable step, the attention of the House is drawn to the continuing issue of the names of deceased persons remaining in the electoral roll for extended periods,” Amonkar said, suggesting that the government may consider bringing about a simplified, mandatory and time-bound mechanism.
The issuance of a death certificate should lead to the deletion of a deceased person’s name from the electoral roll through Form 7 or its digital equivalent, he said.
Opposition MLAs objected to the calling attention, citing apprehensions that minor errors in data can wrongly delete names of voters from the list.
Sawant said the deletion of dead voters’ names is essential to keep the electoral roll accurate and up to date.
“My government is concerned about timely deletion, and is actively working in this direction. Goa is one of the states with 100 per cent registration of births and deaths,” Sawant said.
The Chief Minister said, “In this regard, I propose that the Registrars of Births and Deaths collect electoral details of the deceased from the relatives at the time of death registration. I further propose that Form 7, as prescribed by the Election Commission of India, be made an integral part of the death registration report. This Form 7 will be furnished by all Registrars of Births and Deaths to the collector and district election authorities to ensure the timely deletion of deceased voters from the electoral roll.”
Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai said SIR has resulted in the deletion of the names of over one lakh voters. The exercise has erased the names of genuine Goan voters, while still failing to detect illegal migrants or duplicate registrations.
He maintained that “linking the voter roll to automated databases without human verification will create a permanent, invisible deletion pipeline, making the right to vote a bureaucratic privilege instead of a constitutional right”.
