Lucknow, Feb. 7 -- Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa on Friday sought to dispel doubts raised by political parties about the deletion of a large number of voters' names in Uttar Pradesh through Form-7. "The doubts hold no ground as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has a set procedure for the deletion of names and it is done after proper hearing," he said at a press conference. "The district election officers have been directed to follow the rules strictly," he said. Form-7 is not received by the electoral registration officer in bulk, he added. "Daily data of Form-7 is released by EC. Before the publication of draft electoral rolls for UP on January 6, as many as 49,399 Form-7 were submitted. From January 6 to February 4, 82,684 Form-7 have been submitted. The booth level agents appointed by political parties have submitted merely 1,567 Form-7," he said. "Before deleting a name, the ECI will issue notice to the voter whose Form-7 has been received as well as to the person who has submitted Form -7 for the deletion of a voter's name on the basis of death, age, absent/permanently shifted, already enrolled in the electoral roll at the same place or some other place and not an Indian citizen," he said. "The electoral registration officer holds a hearing on the notice. The decision to delete a name is taken after the seven-day notice period is over," he added. "The right to submit Form-7 belongs only to a person whose name is already on the electoral rolls of the same assembly constituency. The person filling out Form-7 must first write their name and then their voter ID card number. After that, they must write the name of the person against whom they are objecting and the reason for the objection," he said. htc...