Mumbai: 3.41 lakh duplicate voters just in western suburbs

Ahead of the forthcoming BMC election the Election Commission of India has found 341 lakh voter ID cards with many having the photo of the same person but under different names and addresses These are just from areas between Bandra and Dahisar Now the EC has directed the citizens including the elderly to visit the office and prove their genuinenessFailing this their names will be removed from the voting listOfficers said the face detection tech used by the EC caught the duplication These machines match the photos automatically on the voterrsquos portal The portal showed eightnine voter cards having the same photo but different voter names and residential addressesHarish Bhojwani 77 and his wife Poonam Bhojwani 71The election officers started sending notices to all the addresses on voter ID cards flagged by the EC asking people to prove their identity They have asked people to appear before the office with their documents at the allotted time or send their representatives or their names would be deleted from the voting list This has particularly inconvenienced the elderly citizensAlso Read Mumbai Why does only D Ward get tiled dividers ask activistsLast week around 8000 residents of Khar Bandra and Santacruz went sent notices from the EC which asked them to present their proof at the Vidhan Sabha Election Sangh office in Khar West on Thursday October 6On Thursday and Friday midday visited several Electoral Registration offices and spoke to some of the genuine voters whose photo was used with othersrsquo detailsVoting since the 80sVasant Khimachand Mehta 84 a retired lawyer from Santacruz who has been exercising her voting rights since the 80s is among the voters who received the notice His son Viral Mehta rushed to the Electoral Registration Office in Khar West to find out about it and saw his fatherrsquos photo alongside Sudhir Ramchandra Sandabhor from Khar WestSame photo has been used in at least two voter ID cards in these photosViral Mehta Vasantrsquos son asked ldquoMy father has been voting consistently since the 80s How is the election officer suddenly talking about removing his name from the listrdquoHe said the notice was dated September 23 but arrived only twothree days back ldquoThey should give sufficient time and instead visit the houses for verification The election officer told me they did visit my house but no one came This is a threatening notice with a short notice of just one dayrdquoldquoMoreover they had given a personal email idacmsd177gmailcomand not a government email id I canrsquot take my father to the office at this age hence I went to represent himrdquo he addedlsquoNotice is threateningrsquoAn elderly couple Harish Bhojwani 77 and his wife Poonam Bhojwani 71 visited the Khar office on Thursday Later Harish told midday ldquoWe live in Mumbai alone and at this age election officers called us to the office to prove whether we are genuine voters This is total harassment and the notice warning to remove our names had a threatening tone Moreover the notice was in Marathi language and we are unable to read and understand itrdquoldquoMy wife had to come despite being sick Last year I was hospitalised for twothree months after a fall at home In this condition I am here to prove whether I am alive They also claimed that they visited our house but were told they do not live there How is this possible They are lyingrdquo Harish addedSumaiya Raghavan and her husband Radhakrishnan Raghavan Bandra West residents also visited the Khar office on ThursdayVery short noticeldquoI received this notice only on Wednesday stating that they will remove our name from the voting list if we are not present at the office on Thursday It is a threatening notice I have never missed a single election I am assuming that what they are asking with this notice is only whether I am alive I took leave today and visited the election office to prove that I am aliverdquoNikhil Haria 46 a Khar resident who works in travel business said ldquoI received this notice at 130 pm on Thursday and immediately rushed to the election office The officer told me that there are multiple entries in their system with my photosrdquolsquoWe are just helpingrsquoDeputy Electoral Officer Sunil Mali in charge of jurisdiction in Khar Santacruz and Bandra said ldquoWe sent notices to around 13900 citizens after the ECI sent us a report of duplication of photos One photo was used in at least eightnine voter IDs with different names Our officers also visited their houses but didnrsquot find them This notice is not a threat at all These were sent out as per law We are doing it to verify the genuine voters so that they can cast their votes People should not panic We are here to help peoplerdquoVoterAadhaar linkingA senior election officer told midday that they have started a doortodoor campaign for the linking of voter ID and Aadhaar card ldquoIt will stop any sort of duplicationrdquoldquoDuring this drive we also found that some have two voting cards one of their village and another of Mumbai They visit their village for voting as they get money into their bank accounts under farmer schemes According to the rules this is not allowed People caught voting at two places will be punished and their names will be removed from the voting listrdquoThe officer also complained about poor reception during the campaign saying some people abused them and cast doubts on their authenticity ldquoWe are just doing our job People should support usrdquo he added