GHMC drop boxes conspicuous by their absence

HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) seems to be taking people for a ride. While inaugurating the drop box at IMAX cinema theatre in the presence of Chief Electoral Officer I V Subba Rao, to facilitate enrollment of unregistered voters in the twin cities and also for obtaining Electoral Photo Identity Cards, GHMC Commissioner S P Singh had announced that 2,000 drop boxes would be set up at different places in the twin cities for a period of one month.

They would be placed at all nationalised banks, e-seva centres, fair price shops, post offices, shopping malls and petrol bunks, he had said, but one can hardly find them at the above mentioned spots. Even a few drop boxes found at the GHMC head office, zonal offices and other places are not serving any purpose as one can hardly find electoral forms like 6, 7 and 8 at such places.

Yuva Satta, the youth wing of the Lok Satta Party, which inspected the above mentioned places, pointed out that drop boxes were available only at 15 to 20 places.

Yuva Satta volunteers inspected over 1,050 petrol bunks, post offices, banks, ration shops and super bazaars in 21 constituencies of the city. They found that drop boxes were available only at five post offices, six petrol bunks and four super bazaars.

GHMC officials told ENS that it would take a while to set up drop boxes at important places to help unregistered persons enroll as voters.

Courtesy : Expressbuzz.com

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 - 13:15