Bengaluru, March 24: Collection of personal or electoral data in the guise of survey is an offence, according to the Election Commission of India.
“You are hereby directed to look into any such incidents either by individuals or organizations collecting personal and electoral data and book cases under IPC,” says the Circular sent from the ECI to all District Electoral Officers (DEOs).
Following this ECI circular, the BBMP has issued the circular to all its AROs and other ground level officers to look into the matter.
The collection of data includes asking the people about their choice or preference of parties and voting.
“We follow secret ballot under the parliamentary form of government. Choice of parties is confidential. Nobody should ask the voters about their choice of political parties,” a senior BBMP official told The Newz Peg.
The ECI thought of coming out with this circular after it received numerous complaints from the people about the individuals and organizations collecting personal and electoral data in the guise of conducting survey.
The political parties too have commissioned certain agencies to conduct surveys to know the mood of the voters in order to fine-tune their electoral strategy.
The ECI has also learnt that several organizations are going round the city and different parts of the state posing as Election Officials and collecting personal and electoral data.
The DEOs and AROs have been instructed that such offences must be bioned under the Representation of the People’s Act (RPA) and IPC.
EOM
