Muslim clerics demand Urdu voter list in 130 assembly seats of UP

Lucknow, Dec 14 (UNI) Prominent Muslim clerics and leaders have demanded publication of voters' list in Urdu by the Election Commission before the crucial assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The demand for Urdu voters' list in 130 assembly seats before the Election Commission (EC) observer D K Goyal here today might delay further the publication of the final voter list scheduled to be done on January 3 next.

A delegation of Muslims led by All India Muslim Personal Law Board(AIMPLB) vice-chairman Kalbe Sadiq and Naib imamb of Idgah Aisbagh Maulana Khalid Rashid met the observer and expressed their annoyance over ignoring the Urdu voters' list in the electoral roll revision process.

The delegation also criticised the political parties for not raising the issue during their meeting with the Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswamy.

AIMPLB member and spokesperson for the delegation Zafaryab Jilani told reporters here that as per the directives of EC, voters list of 130 assembly constitutencies in 31 districts of UP, including 8 constituencies in Lucknow are required to be prepared in Hindi and Urdu.

He said neither any draft rolls in Urdu were displayed for public inspection nor the same were given to the staff deputed for door-to- door enumeration between July and October, 2006.

In the memorandum to the EC observer, they said due to non preparation of Urdu voters' list, large number of Muslims who are not well versed in Hindi have not been able to inspect the electoral rolls in order to ascertain as to whether their names are included in the said voter list.

''As such there arises no quesion of objections being filed by them for inclusion of the names of such persons whose names are missing in the electoral rolls or whose names are so incorrectly included that they may be deprived of exercising their right of franchise'', the memorandum claimed.

Mr Jilani said Forms 6,7 and 8 required to be filled by the voters filing objections against the omissions of their names or for corrections, do not exist in Urdu language so as to enable the Urdu knowing population to fill up the said forms after understanding the contents thereof and in this way, the very purpose of EC was being defeated.

They said that due to these irregularities of non-release of Urdu voters' list, the valuable right to vote the Muslim community and specially urdu knowing population of the state is being seriously jeopardised and virtually were to being taken away.

Urging the EC to publish and provide voters list in Urdu, the memorandum said this would save the Urdu knowing population of the state from being deprived of their precious right of franchise in the assembly polls.

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