Delhi election office to review SIR timeline, with enumeration form distribution yet to start

New DelhiWith the distribution of enumeration forms to voters whose names were left out of the draft electoral roll yet to begin, officials aware of the matter said on Thursday that the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, will review the timelines for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise

New Delhi

BLOs at a voter’s house in June. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

With the distribution of enumeration forms to voters whose names were left out of the draft electoral roll yet to begin, officials aware of the matter said on Thursday that the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Delhi, will review the timelines for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise.

An official aware of the matter, asking not to be named, said the CEO’s office would review whether the schedule required a further extension, either next week or closer to November 25, depending on the progress of the form distribution exercise.

“The process of distributing enumeration forms will begin next week as the ECINet software is being updated. booth-level officers (BLOs) have completed two rounds of reverification and are aware of the number of voters they will have to approach for filling enumeration forms,” the official said.

Under the drive, each BLO will be required to contact around 300 voters whose names were deleted from the draft roll and facilitate the filling of enumeration forms. The exercise is expected to cover all such electors across Delhi before November 25, the extended deadline for filing claims and objections.

Meanwhile, over 300,000 applications seeking inclusion in Delhi’s electoral roll have been received since August 31, when the claims and objections process under the SIR began, according to the latest bulletin issued by the CEO’s office on Thursday.

A total of 304,352 Form-6 applications were received between August 31 and November 11, taking the total to 516,752. The bulletin recorded 549 Form-6A applications during the period, bringing the cumulative total to 1,900. It clocked 30,954 Form-7 applications, seeking deletion of names from the electoral rolls, taking the cumulative number of such applications stood at 82,425.

The CEO’s office also received 111,516 Form-8 applications during the period—for correction of entries in the electoral roll or shifting of residence—taking the total to 372,284.

The claims and objections period, initially scheduled to end earlier, has been extended until November 25. Applications received by the deadline are to be disposed of by December 15, while the final electoral roll is scheduled to be published on December 22, the bulletin read.

As per the earlier schedule, the draft roll was set to be published on December 4. If the SIR dates will be extended again, it will be the sixth extension, said officials.

The fresh outreach exercise assumes significance as nearly 4.7 million voters were left out of the draft electoral roll published during the SIR process. Officials said BLOs would have to approach these voters individually and facilitate the submission of enumeration forms, giving them an opportunity to seek inclusion in the electoral roll.

The CEO’s office has also urged eligible citizens to check their names in the draft electoral roll and submit Form-6 applications if they find their names missing.