March 29, 2024

BENGALURU EXPRESS

Truth Triumphs

Regional commissioner, Bangalore to probe NGO Chilume

Chilume mired in alleged theft of voter information and impersonation

Bengaluru, Nov. 18: With the issue of alleged breach of privacy by an NGO, Chilume during the SVEEP activity on voter registration and linking of Aadhar with Voter Identity card snowballing, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka Manoj Kumar Meena has written to the Regional Commissioner of Bengaluru Aditya Amlan Biswas to conduct a detailed probe into it and submit a comprehensive report.

Mr. Meena in a letter stated that his office received a complaint on November 10 on WhatsApp alleging that a private person used an identity card to impersonate the booth-level officer (BLO) in Mahadevapura Assembly constituency in the city.

“With regard to the complaint, the electoral registration officer 174 — Mahadevapura Assembly constituency has reported that identity cards were issued to Chilume Educational, Cultural and Rural Development Trust to work as booth-level coordinating officers on January 29, 2022, based on the permission of the district election officer given to the said institution for coordinating with the BLOs and that the said institution had made photocopies of the ID cards and written BLO, June 9, 2022, on them,” Mr. Meena said in his letter.

“With regard to the misuse of permission and the ID card, a case has been registered with Whitefield police on November 15, 2022,” he added.

Meanwhile, the BBMP on Friday said that action will be initiated against Chilume if the private firm is found that they had collected voter data other than what was assigned to them, the BBMP said on Friday. “We have also asked the police to investigate whether private data was collected. We have also sought reports from Additional District Election Officers (ADEOs),” he added.

ADEOs entrusted to provide report:

Venkatachalapathy, ADEO (North), Rangappa ADEO (Central), Srinivas, ADEO (Bengaluru Urban DC rural) and Jagadish Naik, ADEO (South).

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