As enumeration under SIR wraps up in Delhi, fear looms over being ‘struck off’

With just one day left in the deadline for the enumeration process under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), officials on Sunday said that the nearly 34% of the forms left to be digitised largely belong to individuals who may have moved and would be removed from the electoral roll

With just one day left in the deadline for the enumeration process under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), officials on Sunday said that the nearly 34% of the forms left to be digitised largely belong to individuals who may have moved and would be removed from the electoral roll.

As enumeration under SIR wraps up in Delhi, fear looms over being ‘struck off’

According to the latest status report of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, as of 8 pm on Sunday, 97,20,000 forms had been digitised, while around 47,80,000 forms were still pending.

The lowest digitisation rate was recorded from south east Delhi at 55.94%, followed by New Delhi (60.68%), south (61.05%), and central (61.87%). Outer north recorded the highest percentage of digitisation at 75.66, followed by west (73.17%) and south west (73.03%).

However, officials said that a large number of the pending forms are linked to voters who have either shifted from the addresses they are registered at or could not be found despite repeated visits by booth-level officers (BLOs). Such voters are likely to be categorised under the Absent, Shifted or Dead/Duplicate (ASD) category when the draft roles are published on August 24.

An official from New Delhi district said nearly 40% of voters in their district could eventually be deleted from the electoral rolls after verification. “A large number of government employees live in these areas and are frequently transferred. Our BLOs have visited their addresses multiple times but could not find them. They will therefore be counted under the ASD category,” said the official, asking not to be named.

In Okhla, a BLO said around 1,500 enumeration forms had been distributed, but nearly 500 were still pending. “We have visited the residences multiple times, in fact more than three times in several cases, but these voters were not found at their addresses,” said the officer.

Residents meanwhile raised concerns that the forms that have already been submitted are reportedly showing errors on the Election Commission’s ECINET portal.

BS Vohra, president of the East Delhi RWA Joint Forum, said several residents were unable to verify whether their submitted forms had been digitised. “Many people are facing this problem while checking the status on ECINET. I even faced the same issue when I tried to check the status of my form,” he said.

Residents who could not provide details linking themselves to the 2002 electoral rolls are also worried their names will be removed from the rolls.

“The residents have submitted their forms, but there is a fear that their names may still be struck off because they could not provide their parents’ details from the 2002 list,” said Atul Goyal, president of United Residents Joint Action.

To be sure, the election authorities have twice revised the schedule of SIR exercise in Delhi to provide more time to electors to submit their enumeration forms.