The allegation was made by some enumerators while talking to this correspondent.

They alleged that the officials are deducting amounts between Tk 50 and Tk 200 from their remuneration paid for preparing the draft voter list which was declared null and void by the High Court. But the officials do not give any explanation for that.

The draft voter list was completed on March 12. The Election Commission sent about Tk 35 lakh and each enumerator was supposed to get at least Tk 1000, they claimed. The money reached Nilphamari on May 10. The amount is about half of the remuneration they had got for preparing the draft voter list in 2000.

District Election Office sources said 2,677 data collectors, 724 supervisors and 74 assistant supervisors were engaged to prepare the draft voter list.

Seeking anonymity, a data collector said, "I got Tk 800 after officials deducted Tk 200".

In 2000, Tk 6 was paid to each data collector and Tk 1.25 to each assistant supervisor for collecting data on each voter, when each of them collected data on 300 voters. This time, each data collector collected data on 400 voters, and as such, should get Tk. 2400 as remuneration, she said.

Some officials at Nilphamari Sadar Upazila Election Office admitted that Tk 30 to Tk 100 was being deducted from remuneration of data collectors to "meet office expenses".

When contacted, District Election Officer Faridul Islam said none submitted any written complaint to him in this regard.