SIR rationalisation of polling stations may lead to more booths in Delhi

New Delhi: Delhi is likely to see more polling stations after the rationalisation of polling stations under the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls, officials said on Friday

New Delhi: Delhi is likely to see more polling stations after the rationalisation of polling stations under the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) exercise of electoral rolls, officials said on Friday.

According to officials, additional polling stations will be created in areas where the number of electors exceeds the prescribed limit of 1,200, reduced from the earlier ceiling of 1,500. (HT Archive)

According to officials, additional polling stations will be created in areas where the number of electors exceeds the prescribed limit of 1,200, reduced from the earlier ceiling of 1,500.

“The district election officers had identified polling stations with more than 1,200 electors based on pre-SIR data. Proposals for revising the polling station structure have been submitted for approval. Once cleared by the Election Commission, voters will be tagged to the newly created stations through the election IT system,” explained an official.

The exact number of new polling stations will only be known after the approval of the ECI on August 24.

The rationalisation of polling stations is not yet complete, a key reason the ECI is revising the schedule for the SIR exercise.

Delhi currently has 13,033 polling stations, also known as polling booths, located across nearly 2,697 polling locations in 13 districts. Under the rationalisation process, the number of new polling stations will depend on the number of electors at each existing station.

Officials said new stations or locations will generally be kept within a two-kilometre radius of the existing polling station to minimise inconvenience for voters.

The exercise is being carried out using Delhi’s pre-SIR electoral database, which had around 14.5 million electors when the rolls were frozen on June 16.

The draft electoral roll will now be published on August 31, while the final roll is scheduled for November 4 instead of October 27. The claims and objections window will remain open from August 31 to September 30, with officials expected to dispose of the cases by October 29.

The SIR process began on June 30 with door-to-door distribution of enumeration forms by booth-level officers and concluded on August 17.

More than 4.7 million electors, or nearly 33% of Delhi’s pre-SIR electorate, were classified under the Absent, Shifted or Dead/Duplicate (ASD) category because their forms were not digitised.

These voters will not appear in the August 31 draft roll but can file claims and objections if they are listed under the absent or shifted categories and seek inclusion in the final electoral roll.