VISAKHAPATNAM: With just a day left for enrolling themselves as voters, people are making a beeline to the voter enrolment centre at the District Collectorate, Mee Seva centres and Internet cafes in the city.
Thousands of people thronged the helpline centre at the Collectorate on Thursday to check their names in the voter list. With slow working of the electoral portal, opened by thousands of people simultaneously, there are many who could not find their voter ID in the list and had to wait for hours.
“About 3 lakh applications were received online for new voter enrolment in the district. In the past four days itself, 30,000 new applications were received,’’ an official supervising the process in the Collectorate told TNIE.
The 1950 helpline centre in the Collectorate is manned by five staffers, who take at least 400 calls a day. A majority of the calls are pertaining to get confirmation from the officials about their names in the electoral rolls.
“Apart from the call centre, volunteers were posted outside to help people, who check the voter list through the mobile application. However, network problems are making people wait for long hours,’’ admitted a staffer manning the helpline.
Names deleted without knowledge, allege many
There are network issues as many use the portal at the same time. Even the mobile application is too slow to check. “We are explaining the process to check names in the voter list to smartphone users. But there are many who wait for hours to get confirmation that their names are in the voter list,” said a volunteer at the helpline centre.
When TNIE visited the enrolment centre at the Collectorate, it was noticed that the people are finding it difficult to access the State category itself (one of the primary steps) taking 20-25 minutes.
“Even after the process is completed, one has to wait for at least an hour refreshing the page to get approved,” an official noted.
Satyanarayana of Sujata Nagar, who lost his voter ID, could neither remember the EPIC number nor get details through his surname. He had to apply afresh sitting for an hour uploading all the necessary documents for voter enrolment.
“I got a vote in the previous elections. Now, I could not find my name in the voter list. No one visited my house to verify the voter list. Though I received a message that my application was submitted, but I wonder if I would get a voter ID on time,” he said.
There are many people who allege that their names were deleted from the voter list despite having voter IDs. When they could not find their names in the portal, they approached the helpline for a new application.
“The portal is too slow. As I could not find my name and the call centre number was not connecting, I visited the helpline centre. The staff could find my name after 3-4 searches. Many people are applying for enrolment assuming that their names are not in the voter list,” said Swarna of Kirlampudi Layout.