Under the special intensive revision (SIR) programme for voters announced by the Election Commission, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) are required to deliver enumeration forms to every voter's home. This process is scheduled to be completed between November 4 and December 4.
However, two days into the campaign, voters are still waiting for the BLOs, who have not yet reached their homes. The state's Chief Electoral Officer had requested photographs as evidence of this campaign, which could not be provided due to the delay.
The District Election Office claims that the enumeration forms have been delivered to the EROs (Nirvachak Panjeekaran Adhikari) of all assembly constituencies. These forms will now reach the voters through them.
There are seven assembly constituencies in the district, with a total of 2,699,820 voters and 2,758 booths. An equal number of BLOs are deployed for the task.
Voters Fear Removal From Electoral Roll
In the first phase of the SIR programme, BLOs are required to visit every voter's home, provide them with the enumeration form, and assist them in filling it out. The voter must then fill in the information and return it.
Guidelines for the campaign clearly state that the name of any voter who does not fill and return the enumeration form will be removed from the electoral roll. This has caused voters to want to fill and submit the forms as soon as possible to ensure their vote is retained, but the BLOs have not been seen in the first two days.
Assistant District Election Officer Alok Sharma stated that the District Election Office has provided the forms to the EROs, who will make them available to the BLOs to be sent to voters' homes.
District Magistrate and District Election Officer Dr VK Singh said, "There is no room for negligence in the SIR campaign. It will be reviewed on Thursday. Through this, the pace of the campaign will be increased".