E-Paper
5,400 dead, 3,900 duplicate voters detected in Chandigarh’s electoral rolls
The Chandigarh administration has completed 62.5% of the exercise to ensure up-to-date electoral rolls by removing all ineligible voters
Ahead of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls scheduled in March, the UT administration has detected over 9,300 irregular entries, including around 5,400 deceased and nearly 3,900 duplicate voters, while mapping data using the 2002 electoral rolls.
The administration has completed 62.5% of the exercise to ensure up-to-date electoral rolls by removing all ineligible voters and the process will conclude by the end of this month, shared deputy commissioner and district election officer Nishant Kumar Yadav.
Chandigarh has approximately 6.4 lakh registered voters, while the estimated population of the city is around 13.64 lakh. Officials said the current exercise is aimed at aligning voter data with ground realities to improve the accuracy and credibility of the electoral rolls.
Crackdown on double voters, SMS Alerts introduced
The election department has adopted a strict approach against double voting to clean up the voter lists.
Special focus is being laid on voters who are linked to other states and Union territories or who are not residing at their recorded addresses. Verification revealed that many such voters were also registered in states such as Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Officials said names of voters found to be registered at more than one place or not residing in Chandigarh were being deleted from the rolls after due verification.
To ensure transparency, voters whose names are being deleted are being informed through SMS alerts to their registered mobile numbers.
Officials said this step will help voters receive timely information and complete any required formalities, if applicable. So far, more than 3,900 voters have been found to be registered both in Chandigarh and in their native states, indicating widespread duplication in certain pockets of the city.
The department has also intensified checks in colonies and sectors that have long been flagged for suspicious voter registrations. Officials said repeated complaints were received from certain areas where 100 or more voters were found to be registered at a single residential address.
2002 revision used as base for verification
The SIR carried out in 2002 has been taken as the base for the current exercise. Voters whose names appeared in the 2002 rolls and who later registered again in Chandigarh are being subjected to special scrutiny to detect duplicate or bogus entries.
Officials noted that Chandigarh’s population had changed significantly over the past two decades due to large-scale migration for employment and education. While many families moved out of the city, a large number of people from other states settled here, contributing to inaccuracies in voter records.
Revised rolls to be used for MC elections in December
The UT administration said the revised electoral rolls will be used for the municipal corporation (MC) elections scheduled for December this year. Under the recent delimitation process, seven wards have been reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates, of which three will be reserved for SC women.
The specific wards will be finalised through a draw of lots, likely in April, after approval from the Election Commission. The total number of wards and their boundaries will remain unchanged at 35.
