HYDERABAD: At a time when the Telangana government is facing severe criticism over deletion of names from electoral rolls, names of 40 voters at a posh Srinagar Colony apartment has mysteriously gone missing from the list.

Welcome to house number 8-3-973/2, Divya Apartments in Srinagar Colony, which falls under the Jubilee Hills constituency. None of the occupants of this building will be able to cast her/his vote during the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) election because the electoral rolls practically deny her/his existence.

“We have been living in this apartment for more than 15 years, but all of a sudden our names have been deleted from the voter list,” said Siva Syamala P, a finance executive working with a private firm.

On the Election Commission website, a family of three -- Siva Shyamala P, her husband Rama Krishna P and daughter Sai Swathi P (living on the first floor of the building) – figures in the ‘deleted electors list.’ Reason: The family has “shifted/change of residence”.

It was similar for Dr M A Khadeer, living on the ground floor of the apartment. Names of his son M A Muqtadeer and daughter Maimuna Fatima were deleted for the same reason. This despite the fact that they have been living for over a decade at the same place.

“I can understand our names getting deleted, but it appears a mystery to me as to why wife Zeenat Sajida’s name does not even figure in the ‘deleted electors list’. So for all practical reasons, she is now ‘missing’ despite having a valid voter ID card,” said Dr Khadeer, a physics lecturer at Muffakam Jah College in Banjara Hills.

Equally worried and at a loss of words are Malathi Reddy S and Laxma Reddy S, an elderly couple living on the first floor of the apartment and still working post-retirement -- one as a teacher and the other in the pharma industry. The couple’s daughter Sahitya Reddy S’s name is deleted too.

“Nobody even contacted us to see whether we have really shifted,” complained Malathi Reddy.

In fact, what’s unfolded at Divya Apartments could be a tip of the iceberg in the way the booth-level officers went about their business in the city’s 29 assembly constituencies – 15 in Hyderabad and 14 in Ranga Reddy district -- before deleting names left and right.

There are about one lakh voters figuring in the ‘deleted electors list’ for Jubilee Hills constituency -- which has a total of 308 polling booths, with each booth, on an average, having 270 to 300 deleted names. For instance, in polling booth No. 236 alone, the total number of deleted names (on the ground that they shifted their residence) was pegged at 900.

Incidentally, in the State Assembly elections of April-May 2014, the Jubilee Hills constituency returned a TDP MLA.

All deletions of voter names -- whether due to shifting, death, expiry, duplication, door locked/not available or ineligible -- can be verified on the website of the chief electoral officer, Telangana.