NEW DELHI, July 6 � The Citizens Right Preservation Committee (CRPC) Assam, setting a deadline of six months to dispose of the pending cases, has called for restoration of electoral rights to 2.79 lakh �D� category voters.
The CRPC deadline of six months was given to Chief Election Commissioner, VS Sampath, when a delegation led by chief advisor Hafiz A. Choudhury called on him on Friday.
Choudhury told this newspaper the CRPC delegation demanded that all �D� voters� cases pending in the tribunals be disposed of within six months. In case of failure to dispose of the cases, all fundamental and legal rights including voting rights be restored, CRPC has demanded.
The �D� voters are facing serious consequences. They are not only deprived of voting rights but also remain deprived of all government benefits including ration cards, PRC, bank loans, passports. The law does not recognise a third category of doubtful voters. Therefore the Election Commission should re-examine the issue, Choudhury said.
On the number of �D� category voters, the CRPC alleged that officials responsible for conducting house-to-house enumeration were negligent and not working as per norms.
The delegation said that during 13 years out of 2.21 lakh �D� category voters referred to the tribunals, only 87,471 cases were disposed of, out of which 5577 were declared as foreigners.
