Government yet to evaluate options voting options for internal migrants

NEW DELHI: The government is yet to evaluate the proposal for introduction of postal ballot and proxy for voting by internal migrant workers and their families.

In a reply in Rajya Sabha, Law Minister DV Sadananda Gowda further said that Election Commission has told the government that it does not have the details or figures for migrant workers in the country.

Neither does the poll watchdog have information about the number of migrant workers who voted in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he added.

"No sir," Gowda said in his written reply in the Upper House to a query as to whether the government has evaluated the proposal for introduction of postal ballot and proxy for voting by internal migrant workers and their families.

He explained that people cast their vote at polling booths in the area where they are enrolled as voters.

In Rajya Sabha recently, several members had slammed the government for ignoring migrant workers while looking to grant alternative voting facility for overseas Indians.

But Election Commission officials said that granting such rights to migrant workers was a difficult task.

They said that while the Commission is yet to firm up its views on the issue, there are logistical and administrative problems given the number of such voters in the country.

In reply to another question, Gowda told the Upper House that the government is considering a proposal for allowing alternative options for voting to overseas electors in the form of e-postal ballot and proxy voting.

But since it would mean amending the Representation of the People Act, 1950 and 1951, by Parliament, no timeframe can be given for the same, he added.

The proposal to grant voting rights via electronic means to overseas Indians is based on a legal framework drawn up by a panel consisting of officials from Election Commission, the Law Ministry and External Affairs Ministry.

The government had later decided to include service voters in the category.