In a startling revelation, every second voter on the rolls in Rajaji Nagar Assembly constituency in Karnataka was found to be a wrong entry.
Much to the embarrassment of the local administration and the chief electoral officer, this large-scale discrepancy in their records were their own finding while they tried to prove an NGO wrong.
A local NGO, which conducted a study on correctness in three polling stations in the constituency in the year 2005, had arrived at a discrepancy rate as high as 70 per cent.
Taken aback by the NGO's claim, the state's chief electoral officer probed the matter and it was found that there were "some intrinsic defects" in the methodology adopted by the NGO.
A large number of households could not be located as volunteers engaged by the NGO did not know Kannada. There was no cut-off date with reference to the study conducted and the NGO verified only 0.04 per cent of the total electorate of nearly 4 crore, official sources said.
The NGO was asked to seek assistance from local revenue officials for verification work, which was restarted.
Many missing names re-surfaced, but the percentage of inaccuracy still remained as high as 49 per cent.
"Keeping all this in view the Election Commission had made an indepth study of the rolls in Karnataka state and ordered special revision of intensive nature in as many as 46 Assembly constituencies with provision of checking each and every existing name by door-to-door visit," sources said.
