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DMs to be held accountable for voter list glitches, says UP chief electoral officer
The CEO also directed DEOs to review pending cases pertaining to the receipt of Forms 6, Forms 6A, Forms 7 and Forms 8 and their timely disposal daily
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The Election Commission of India (ECI) has made district election officers (DEOs)/ district magistrates (DMs) responsible for the coordination, supervision, monitoring, and quality control of all voter list-related work in the respective districts. The DEOs will be held accountable for negligence in voter list-related work.
Sharing this information, Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa on Friday said, “Maintaining accurate, error-free, and up-to-date voter lists for assembly constituencies is an important work. The responsibility of the voter list will not be limited to electoral registration officers or subordinate officers but the DEO who has the ultimate administrative and supervisory power will be responsible to make the voter list error free.”
He said all voter list-related work is currently being conducted through ECI-Net.
“If any district finds unnecessarily pending cases, inactive users, incomplete profiles, inaccurate voter lists, or lax supervision, the DEO will be held accountable, and appropriate action will be considered based on the merits of the case,” he said.
The CEO also directed DEOs to review pending cases pertaining to the receipt of Forms 6, Forms 6A, Forms 7 and Forms 8 and their timely disposal daily. In the event of pending applications or forms at any level, unusual delays in disposal, or inactive logins, the reasons should be immediately identified and necessary action should be taken, he said.
“No Form 6, Form 6A, Form 7, or Form 8 should remain unnecessarily pending…if an application pertains to another district, it should be forwarded to the DEO of the respective district without delay. Applications marked by the wrong ERO/AERO should be immediately reassigned to the correct officer, and in cases where marking has not been done, the relevant officer should be ensured to be immediately marked,” he said.
The DEO should regularly review the performance of subordinate officers in voter list-related work and ensure corrective and punitive action as needed, he added.
‘’Book a Call with BLO’
As for the ‘Book a Call with BLO’ facility available on the ECI Net App and the Citizen Services portal voters.eci.gov.in, no call request by citizens under this scheme should remain pending for more than 48 hours, according to the officer.
“If any BLO does not respond to the call request of a citizen on time or selects the option ‘Contacted’ or ‘Unavailable’ without contacting the citizen concerned, strict action should be taken against such BLO,” he said.
PILIBHIT VOTER LIST ANOMALIES:UP CEO SEEKS CLARIFICATIONFROM PRESENT, PREVIOUS DMs
Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer Navdeep Rinwa has sought a clarification from the present Pilibhit district election officer (DEO)/district magistrate Alok Kumar and the previous DEO/ DM Gyanendra Singh regarding a complaint that one voter’s EPIC number was displayed with another voter’s details in the voter list for the Pilibhit Sadar assembly constituency.
Rinwa said an investigation into the EPIC numbers of many voters listed in the voter list for Pilibhit Sadar assembly constituency revealed that a total of 13,779 erroneous forms were entered between May 31, 2026, and August 29, 2026, of which 10,470 erroneous forms were accepted.
Given the seriousness of the matter and the duties and responsibilities of DEOs as outlined in the Representation of the People Act, 1950, and the Manual on Electoral Rolls, 2023, clarification has been sought from the present and previous DEOs/DMs of Pilibhit district, he said.
“It is the responsibility of the DEO/DM to maintain the accuracy and reliability of the voter list. If any errors or irregularities are found in the voter list, necessary action will be taken against the DEO/DMs as per the rules,” he said.
