Teacher suspended for deleting names from voters list

KENDRAPADA: A school teacher was suspended on the charges of illegally deleting the names of about 4,000 Bengali-speaking people from the voters' lists.
  
Official sources said here today that the teacher, working as an enumerator in the seaside villages of Mahakalapada block in Kendrapada district, described falsely the Bengali-speaking people as dead.  
  
The suspension order was served on the teacher on February 14 after the district administration conducted an inquiry on the irregularities in the voters' lists, following a complaint lodged by the affected people.
  
During the inquiry, the district administration came to know that school teacher Murali Mohan Debanath committed the gross negligence by deleting the names of many voters.
  
The authority had appointed school teachers as enumerators to rectify the voters' lists.
  
When contacted, Kendrapada District Collector Kashinath Sahoo said action would be taken against other enumerators also, if they were found involved in deleting the voters' names from the list.
  
A large number of voters of the district came to know that their names had been deleted from the voters' lists after the district administration, on January 10, published the final voters list, Krusaka Sabha president of Mahakalapada block Arjun Mandal said.
  
The district unit of the CPM also demonstrated in front of the Collector's office here yesterday demanding action against those enumerators who had illegally deleted the names from the voters' lists.