Daijiworld Media Network - Dharwad (SP)
Dharwad, Jul 21: It is strange and appears unreal. At the same time, it is true. There are areas in Hubballi where there are no houses. But the voters suddenly appear from nowhere at the time of elections but disappear in thin air after casting their votes.
This weird phenomenon is witnessed in areas like Down Chawl, Cement Chawl and Vidyaranya Nagar areas of Hubballi. People living in the neighbourhood of these areas have many a time urged the concerned to find out the secret behind this trick but their pleas have not been met.
Houses in these areas were evicted more than nine years back. There are no houses in Down Chawl, Cement Chawl, and Vidyaranya Nagar Hubballi. More than 500 houses on Gadag Road had been cleared then. Even now no one lives in these areas and the area has been turned into open fields. But there are thousands of names in the electoral roll. People who have shifted from here continue to be the voters of these areas.
These people have the right to vote from here for the coming city corporation election. This area, which was identified as wards No. 48 and 49 in the past, has been given ward No. 61 now. It falls under Hubballi - Dharwad east constituency. There are 702 voters in Down Chawl, 1,317 in Cement Chawl, and 747 in Vidyaranya Nagar. Total voters here are in excess of 2,700.
In this area where no one lives, for every election, three polling booths are erected. The voters come, exercise their franchise and go away. People living elsewhere are voting from here. It is said that this is happening because of the negligence of the officials during voters’ list revision. The negligence of the people who have changed their residences is also apparent. Most of the voters have not got their addresses changed in the electoral rolls, as a result, the confusion continues. The major question here is, how can there be a voter list for vacant land. It appears that the voters have been retained here with the connivance of some former corporators with corporation officials. Vijay Karra from Kanyanagara says that the voters list has not been modified even after a petition was filed in 2018.