BLOs likely to reverify 4.7 million deleted from draft roll in Delhi SIR

The development comes a day after the Election Commission of India extended the deadline for the SIR exercise in the Capital.

Booth-level officers (BLOs) in Delhi will undertake a second round of re-verification of nearly 4.7 million names deleted from the electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR), officials aware of the matter said on Friday, effectively a third round of checks before voters are deleted from the final voter roll.

This will be the second round of re-verification since the claims and objections period began on August 31 and is set to end on November 25. (HT Photo/ Representational)

According to officials, after the first phase of re-verification, around 6,000 forms were received. A special drive will again be conducted to re-verify Absent, Shifted, Dead, and Duplicate (ASDD) electors through house-to-house visits by BLOs, officials said.

The development comes a day after the Election Commission of India (ECI) extended the deadline for the SIR exercise in the Capital.

The move is aimed at ensuring that no eligible voter is left out of the final electoral rolls following the deletion of nearly 4.7 million names from the draft rolls published on August 31, officials said.

This will be the second round of re-verification since the claims and objections period began on August 31 and is set to end on November 25. This means that 14,947 BLOs, many of them government school teachers, who have been engaged in the SIR exercise since June 30, will once again have to hit the streets. To be sure, the BLOs will only visit the addresses listed with them and won’t spend time locating the electors.

On Thursday, ECI extended the deadline for filing claims and objections by nearly four weeks from October 31 to November 25. This disposal period for claims and objections will continue until December 15, while the final electoral rolls will be published on December 4.

Finalising Delhi's voter list (HT Graphic)

As per the earlier schedule, the draft roll was set to be published on December 4.

To be sure, this is the fifth time the SIR schedule has been extended in the national capital.

3.1 million cases resolved

Meanwhile, nearly 3.1 million of the 3.3 million cases in which voters were issued notices over non-mapping with the 2002 electoral rolls or logical discrepancies have been resolved so far, officials said.

According to officials, a special camp will also be held across all 14,947 polling stations after the festive season.

“Next weekend, it will be Diwali and then there will be Chhath festival. In order to ensure a good turnout at the camps, we will hold a special camp after the festivities end. However, district election officers can hold special camps at the local level if they want,” said an official.

Helpdesks have also been set up across all districts to assist electors to search their names, filing of Forms, redressal of grievances related to SIR. All eligible electors are requested to contact their area Voter Centres/BLOs to seek assistance for enrollment in the final electoral roll.

Officials also clarified that forms can be filled any time throughout the year during the period of continuous updation even after publication of the final electoral roll. However, in order to include the name in the final roll, Form 6 should be filled by November 25.

The exercise began in the Capital on June 30. The draft roll published on August 31 contained 9.75 million names, reflecting the removal of nearly 4.76 million electors under the ASDD categories.