From The Deputy Commissioner- cum- District Election Officer, GurgaonTo The Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana, Chandigarh Memo No. Elect-2010/ 78 Dated- 2/2/2010

Subject- Complain regarding double vote.

In continuation of this office letter No. Elec/09-2422 dated 21/12/2009 on the subject cited above: It is submitted that as per the. report received from the ElectoralRegistration officer 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency cum SDO Civil(North) total no of 4810 votes were found to be double/more in the entire Electoral Roll of Gurgaon Assembly Constituency. Out of these 4810 entries. 453 entries were double in the same part with all the details of the individual being the same. Test 4257 entries were of the person in different parts. As per your orders, the corrective measure is to be taken up regarding the double entries, 453 entries in the same part can easily he deleted without affecting the Electoral. Hence, the supplement regarding these deletions will be prepared accordingly by 15th February, 2010 positively. For 4357 electors, notices are being issued to the concerned through respective BLO's for corrective measures. The notices will be served latest by 19th February, 2010 to the individuals. Later on, the deletions will be made accordingly. The entire process is expected to be completed by end of this month. Instructions are being issued to BLO's for the same. This is for your kind information & necessary action please. Sdxxxxxxx

Deputy Commissioner- cum-District Election Officer,

Gurgaon

From Electoral Registration Officer, 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency Cum SDO Civil (North), Gurgaon,To Deputy Commissioner-cum- District Election Officer, Gurgaon.

No. 38 Dated 2/2/10

Subject: Complaint regarding Double votes.

R/Sir In continuation of this office letter No. Spl. - 1 dated 21/12/2009, in which total number of 4810 votes were found to be double/more in the entire Electoral Roll of 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency. Out of these 4810 entries, 453 entries were double in the same part with all the details of the individual being the same. Rest 4357 entries were of the person in different parts. As per your orders, the corrective measure is to be taken up regarding the double entries, 453 entries in the same part can easily be deleted without affecting the Elector. Hence, the supplement regarding these deletions will be prepared accordingly by 15th February. 2010positively. For 4357 electors, notices are being issued to the concerned through respective BLO's for corrective measures. The notices will be served latest by 19th February, 2010 /0 the individuals. Later on, the deletions will be made accordingly. The entire process is expected to be completed by end of this month. Instructions are being issued to BLO’s for the same. This is for your kind information & necessary action please.

Sdxxxxxxxxx Electoral Registration Officer,

77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency CumSDO Civil (North), Gurgaon.

02/02/10

From Deputy Commissioner-Cum- District Election Officer GurgaonTo The Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana Chandigarh.

No.Elec/09-2442 Dated-21-12-2009

Subject- Complaint against alleged manipulation in Electoral Rolls for77 -Gurgaon Assembly Constituency- regarding. Kindly refer to the subject cited above. A complaint made byMatdata Jagrookta Manch Gurgaon was received through the ElectionCommission of India and a D.O letter no. SPL-41 dated 2-12-2009 was also received from the Chief Electoral Officer, Haryana. The matter was got enquired from SDO(C) North, Gurgaon who was also the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) for 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency. He has submitted a detailed report which is annexed. While submitting report, he has examined the various Annexureswith the report of the Five Sector Officers containing the comments from AERO, Supervisors and BLOs. On the basis of various reports, five sub lists containing the Double entries can be explained as follows:

Sr.No. Classification of double entries Total No. of alleged double entries

Total No. ofactual double entries

Sub-list no. 1

Name, Father, HNo., ID. Card No. and Part No. Same

8779 453

Sub-list no. 2

Name, Father, H.No., ID., Card No. Same, Part No. different

16797 2459

Sub-list no. 3

Name, Father, H.No. same, ID. Card No. Different & Part No. Same/not same

1547 558

Sub-list no. 4

Name, Father, ID. Card No. Same, Part No. & House No. different

1947 707

Sub-list no. 5

Name, Father's Name same, and other particulars are Different

23861 633

TOTAL 52931 4810

In his report, the SDO(C) North, Gurgaon -cum- ERO, 77-GurgaonAC has reported, that the entire list of the 52931 double entries was segregated into the above mentioned five sub lists and was checked by 5 teams for the double entries in the list. It was reported that total of 4810 entries were found to be double in the entire list of 52931 i.e. about 9.1% of the complaint and 2.06% of the total Electoral Roll of 230881 for 77- Gurgaon Assembly Constituency. Further, the SDO(C) North, Gurgaon - cum- ERO, 77-Gurgaon AC has, inter alia, reported that negligence and lack of supervision led to the errors in the Electoral Roll. He has further submitted that the entire setup (i.e. BLOs, Supervisors, AEROs) was assigned this responsibility and the Sector Officers were to directly monitored the work in the field with the support of AEROs and BLOs. It is also pertinent to mention here that in their reports, the Sector Officers have contended that if the sector officer was not involved in the process of acceptance or rejection of votes (as has been above stated) he/she can not be burdened with the outcome of such a process. The view of SectorOfficers is not tenable and can not be accepted. I agree with the report of SDO(C) North, Gurgaon -cum- Electoral Registration, Officer of 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency. A committee has been constituted consisting of Additional Deputy Commissioner Gurgaon, Sub Divisional Officer(Civil) South Gurgaon and Naib Tehsildar (Election) Gurgaon to probe the role of BLOs, Supervisors, AEROs and Sector Officers and, if found delinquent, appropriate action after fixing responsibility shall be taken against them.

The SDO(C) North, Gurgaon -cum- Electoral Registration Officer of 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency has submitted that as a time constraint and this entire exercise required for, greater time then itwas given to the entire team and that the entire election process wasconducted smoothly and no such complaints were received on the Poll day by any authority in this regard. The report of SDO(C) North, Gurgaon -cum- Electoral Registration Officer of 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency is forwarded for further necessary action please.

Sdxxxxxxxx

Deputy Commissioner-Cum-District Election Officer

Gurgaon

From Electoral Registration Officer, - 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency Cum SDO Civil (North), Gurgaon.To Deputy Commissioner-cum- District Election Officer, Gurgaon.

No. Spl-I Dated 21-12-2009Subject: Complaint against alleged manipulation in Electoral Rolls for 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency -regarding.

In response to your letter No. l/Spl. Dated 03-12-2009 on thesubject cited above. During the last Lok Sabha Election, there was a huge hue and cry regarding the missing voters in the Electoral Roll of 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency keeping this in view a summary revision was ordered by ECI to make the Electoral Roll error free.

During the Special Intensive/Summary Revision of Electoral Roll, a complete pyramid of the officers/officials on duty was engaged with specific roles and responsibilities alongwith the overall aim of making the Electoral Roll of Gurgaon Constituency error free.

Each booth was assigned a BLO, who was supposed to go doorto door and verify the voters living on the address and confirm the presence of voters and their names in the Electoral Roll. In case, the voters name did not exist in the roll, he was to be provided with form No. 6 to fill to enroll in the voter list and deposit it to the respective BLO thereof.

BLO's after verifying the form submitted to him and the particulars mentioned in the form will submit the form to the Supervisor of the concerned BLO's. There were 39 Supervisors to whom BLO's had to report. Further, to help and assist BLO's, several Enumerators were also provided to them.

The Supervisors would then randomly Confirm the particulars in forms filled by the applicant and report it to the AERO's. There were 15 AERO's who were assigned the job of accepting and rejecting the claims of

the applicant. Five Sector officers and One Nodal Officer were appointed to supervise and ensure that no voter was left out and no area was left out in the process and were designated to co-ordinate the activities in their respective sectors to make the Electoral Roll error free. The ERO and AERO had to coordinate the smooth functioning of the entire setup for the entire Constituency.

In the entire process, total number of Forms 6, 7 & 8 received were 71122, 70 & 1065 respectively from the field by various teams.

After scrutiny of these forms, claims and objections following number of Electors were added & deleted 70943 & 48 as per forms 6 & 7 respectively. 6382 deletions were also made on the basis of death or permanent shifting, respectively, resulting in the increase in total number of the Electors from 166368 to 227715 in the draft publication and 230881 in the final publication of the electoral list.

The entire process was closely monitored by Dr. Alok Shukla, Deputy Election Commissioner, New Delhi, Sh. Sajjan Singh, IAS, the thenChief Electoral Officer, Haryana & Sh. ML. Kaushik, the then Additional CEO, Haryana. Instructions, suggestions & advices given by the above authority were incorporated while carrying out the entire exercise. They also advised that during the entire process, various RWA's and other active social group should work in tandem with the entire machinery. The political parties were also invited to give their comments and suggestions at different stages. The draft roll thus published was also given to all RWA's & Political parties for their comments so that necessary changes and corrections can be brought out in the list. The final publication of the final electoral list for General Vidhan Sabha Elections was done on 03-09-2009 on basis of which the election was held.

On 28-11-2009, a complaint regarding 52931 double entries was collected in person by the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon and inquiryvide letter No. 1Spl dated 03-12-2009 was marked to the undersigned in the complaint.

As reported, the entire list of the 52931 double entries was segregated into jive sub lists and was checked by5 teams for the double entries in the list. It was reported that total of 4810 entries were found to be

double in the entire list of 52931 i.e. about 9.1% of the complaint and 2.06% of the total Electoral Roll o f230881for 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency.

As reported earlier, the entire list of 52931 Electors in the complaint and 4810 double entries in various sub-lists was handed over to the five Sector Officers for their comments and report regarding the errors in the Electoral Roll. As per the complaint vide letter No. 2401-05 dated 14-12-2009 and were asked to report by 18th December, 2009 in this concern. They were specifically asked to take comments from AERO's, Supervisors and BLO's for the errors and inform about the responsible officer/official for the lapse in the Electoral Roll, if any.

The AERO for 77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency was handed over the responsibility of overall supervision of the entire process by the then ERO vide letter No. 1042 dated 29-07-2009. As explanation for lapse/faults was thus sought from the AERO in this concern vide letter No. 2410 dated 17-12-2009.

On 20-12-2009, five Sector Officers have submitted a report individually along with the comments from AERO and BLO's: BLO's have reported regarding the double entry in their booths on entry, per entry basis whereas AERO and Sector Officers have given a general report about the reasons for double entry in the Electoral Roll.

As per the report of five Sector Officers, the Sector Officers have gone through the version of BLO's, Supervisors and AERO's and from the report submitted it appears that the BLO's had surveyed the entire areaallotted to them and verified the voters in their working copies by conducting door to door survey. They submitted the list of verified voters, unverified voters, death cases and double voters in their booth duly checked and verified by their Supervisors and AERO's in the Election office. They also submitted the movement charts of voters from one booth to another and within the booth and got the voter list rectified through HARTRON staff in Gurgaon who failed to incorporate the necessary corrections in the voter list. After the publication of draft rolls, the BLO's and Supervisors visited the HARTRON office, Chandigarh to again make the corrections in the draft roll but the HARTRON staff again failed to

make the necessary corrections in relevant documents regarding this, have been submitted by some BLO 's.

The entire structure for the purpose of the instant revision of voter list comprised of BLO’s, Supervisors and AERO's. The BLO's had to collect the forms, conduct the survey and submit their report with regard to the entries made in the forms 6, 7 & 8 and submit them to their Supervisors. He in turn had to verify the same and submit them to the AERO. The AERO had to adjudicate in his quasi judicial capacity upon these forms as per the electoral law and instructions of the Election Commission of India as amended upto date. No other authority including the ERO, Sector Officer & DEO had the occasion to interfere with the judgment, positive or negative of the AERO and if that had been attempted it would have amounted to sabotaging the fairness of the process of Electoral Registration and updation/revision of voter list, thereby vitiating the entire democratic process.

The Sector Officer had to ensure that the entire area was covered by the BLO's, the concerns of the general public, representative ofRWA's/Political parties are genuinely addressed and to co-ordinate between the machinery, as aforesaid, and the o/o Distt. Election Officer.It must also be mentioned that the undersigned undertook intensive tours of the area and checked numerous entries made by the BLO's in the field and got the necessary correction done.

"Door locked" cases were also taken up and each BLO had submitted a list of unverified voters in his working copy to the Election Office.

It is noteworthy that given the peculiar circumstances of Gurgaon, the magnitude of work and the time span provided, the staff workedto the best of their capacities.

After the publication of Draft Roll on 13-08-2009, the correction work and the receiving and deciding of claims and objections in particular was done by the BLO's, Supervisors and AERO's directly through the Election Office under the supervision of the ERO.

Whereas AERO's have commented upon sub-list wise reasoning out why these errors exist into the Electoral Roll.

The undersigned has examined the various Annexures with the report of the Five Sector Officers containing the comments from AERO's, Supervisors and BLO'S.

On the basis of various reports, five sub lists containing the Double entries can be explained as follows:-

Sr.No. Classification of double entries Total No. of alleged double entries

Total No. ofactual double entries

Sub-list no. 1

Name, Father, HNo., ID. Card No. and Part No. Same

8779 453

Sub-list no. 2

Name, Father, H.No., ID., Card No. Same, Part No. different

16797 2459

Sub-list no. 3

Name, Father, H.No. same, ID. Card No. Different & Part No. Same/not same

1547 558

Sub-list no. 4

Name, Father, ID. Card No. Same, Part No. & House No. different

1947 707

Sub-list no. 5

Name, Father's Name same, and other particulars are Different

23861 633

TOTAL 52931 4810

Sub-list no.1 : Name, Father, HNo., ID. Card No. and Part No. Same :-This list was due to multiple entries by HARTRON. If de-duplication software was run by the HARTRON, the problem of double names in the same part would have been easily sorted out.

Sub-list no.2 : Name, Father, H.No., ID., Card No. Same, Part No. different :-

This list can be explained due to the incomplete movements carried out at the time of revision exercise. The BLO's had several times attempted to bring out the correct movement but HARTRON could not affect the movement in the proper format. This was brought about in the notice of District Election Officer as well who was monitoring the exercise at personal level also. The District Election Officer, vide letter No. 1543-1544/PA dated 13-08-2009, informed in details, to the then Chief Secretary and CEO, Haryana of the above problems. Despite repeated attempts, the HARTRON could not affect the movements properly.

Sub-list no.3 : Name, Father, H.No. same, ID. Card No. Different & Part No. Same/not same.

As per the report of AERO's and BLO's, number of people filled in the form 6 multiple times, before enrolling in the Electoral Roll.Few of these forms were accepted in double and thus entered in the Electoral Roll.

Sub-list no.4 : Name, Father, ID. Card No. Same, Part No. & House No. different:-

Gurgaon, being a growing town, has very high turnover ratio. People immigrate from one part to another at a high rate. Such people had filled in form No. 8for correction or change of address in their EPIC. They were enrolled afresh in the new part without deleting from the previous/older part, resulting in the double entry.

List No.5 :- Name, Father's Name same, and other particulars are Different

This list in the list where people have enrolled in the roll for more than once with/without declaring about their previous/old entry in the list.

On compiling the lists and reasons, the errors can be broadly classified into three categories :-

i) Errors for the fault on the part of the HARTRON.

ii) Errors for the fault on the part of the team involved in the revision process.

iii) Errors for the fault on the part of the individual getting enrolled in the list by surprising the facts and truth about the particulars.

The total double entries of 2912 out of 4810 fall in category (i) and would have been easily sorted out by HARTRON itself, bringing down the error rate drastically. AERO -cum- Tehsildar, Gurgaon was deputed by the District Election Officer to collect the final electoral roll after checking and certifying the correctness of the roll. He should have thus made sure that the de-duplication software has been run and double entries have been taken care of. The HARTRON should have made appropriate changes as suggested by BLO's from time to time till final publication of the list. The errors in category (ii) & (iii) are wide spread and are not contained in one sector or part. Hence, it seems that the double entries' could not be corrected in general across the roll. The explanation, for such errors put forth by various BLO's, regarding the instructions about not deleting the untraced voters or shifted voters Suo Motto. It seems that they have not deleted these votes resulting in the 1898 double entries in the Electoral Roll. It is hereby submitted that due to negligence and lack of supervision led to the errors in the Electoral Roll. The entire setup was assigned this

responsibility and the Sector Officers were to directly monitored the work in the field with the support of AERO's & BLO's.

Further, it is submitted that as a time constraint and this entire exercise required for greater time then it was given to the entire team.Further, it is hereby submitted that the entire election process was conducted smoothly and no such complaints were received on the Poll day by any authority in this regard.

The errors identified have to be now corrected and will be taken up as per the schedule and instructions of the ECI.

The report is submitted for further necessary action please.

SdxxxxxxxxxxxxxxElectoral Registration Officer,

77-Gurgaon Assembly Constituency CumSDO Civil (North), Gurgaon.