Bowing to the public outcry, the Election Commission yesterday ordered a fresh intensive revision of the voters' list in Assam and has announced that the new rolls will be published on October 1, 1997.
In view of the Election Commission's decision in this regard, taken in New Delhi earlier in the day and communicated to the state government, the All Assam students' Union is likely to withdraw its opposition to Friday's by-elections in five assembly constituencies in the state. The AASU has taken to the streets and was agitating for the past one month protesting the move for by-elections on the basis of the present voters' list, which, it says, contains the names of a large number of foreign nationals.
The AASU had wanted the ruling Asom Gana Parishad to take steps to get the by-polls postponed until the voters' list was corrected by an intensive revision. Student volunteers openly clashed with AGP supporters during the month while trying to disrupt poll meetings as part of its protest programme.
With the situation reaching a flashpoint, election commissioner M S Gill airdashed here on Friday following a request from Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta and some organisations. He succeeded in diffusing the situation as he assured a fresh revision of the rolls soon after the October eleven by-polls. Yesterday's order by the Election Commission is a time-bound one. According to its schedule, a fresh house-to-house enumeration will be undertaken from December two 1996 to February Twenty eight 1997.
The draft electoral rolls will be published on June sixteen 1997. Claims and objections could be filed between June seventeen to July sixteen 1997 and these has to be disposed off by August thirty 1997. The final rolls will be published on October one 1997.