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Lucknow: In ‘new home’, BLOs, supervisors toil to meet SIR deadline

The Shia PG College auditorium is the war room for digitisation of forms for the 172 Lucknow North Vidhan Sabha constituency.

Published on: Nov 30, 2025, 03:08:00 IST
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Ajit Kumar Singh, an employee with Shia PG College, daily spends about 12 hours at the institution’s auditorium, which has become his ‘new home’ ahead of the December 4 deadline for completing the collection and digitisation of enumeration forms under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls.

Voters completing SIR form at Clock Tower in Lucknow on Saturday. (HT)
Voters completing SIR form at Clock Tower in Lucknow on Saturday. (HT)

The Shia PG College auditorium is the war room for digitisation of forms for the 172 Lucknow North Vidhan Sabha constituency.

The 48-year-old Singh,a supervisor, is among those tasked with digitising data collected by booth level officers (BLOs).

“This period happens to be the peak wedding season. The family received wedding invitations. But I could not reach most of the weddings on time as I was preoccupied with my work,” he said.

“It was tough to explain to my family the workload in the all-important assignments given by the Election Commission of India. It is a national duty and I take a lot of pride in doing this work,” said Singh while feeding data using his mobile phone.

On Saturday afternoon, the Shia PG College auditorium was packed with 50 workers engaged by ECI to digitise data. Tej Pal Singh, another supervisor, said, “It is our duty to motivate all the workers to put their best foot forward in digitising data,”

Barely a few kilometres away, the iconic Clock Tower is one of the booths for the Lucknow North assembly constituency. Hundreds of Muslim voters reached there to search their and family members’ names in the voter list. A large number of them were seen seeking help from visitors at the Clock Tower to fill SIR forms.

A young woman, Ankita, was one of those helping voters fill their SIR forms.

“It gives me a huge pleasure to help people. I felt like I did my bit in this exercise which is taking place in our state,” said Ankita.

Raj Kamal, a supervisor at the Clock Tower booth, said workers from different departments were striving as one unit in a bid to wrap up the ongoing SIR exercise on time.

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rajeev Mullick

Rajeev Mullick, Assistant Editor, is a Lucknow-based journalist with over 26 years of experience covering governance, public policy and administration in Uttar Pradesh. His reporting focuses on the district administration, the Divisional Commissioner's Office, the Regional Meteorological Centre, and government policies relating to technical, higher, secondary and primary education. Known for impactful public-interest journalism, his investigations have led to significant policy attention, including a report on deficiencies in a state-run school footwear distribution scheme that prompted widespread national coverage and High Court intervention. He broke the story on the Uttar Pradesh government's One District One Cuisine initiative, highlighting the inclusion of sweets and the exclusion of non-vegetarian dishes, triggering widespread public debate. He covered Mahakumbh 2025 at Prayagraj, reports on the event's administrative, logistical and civic dimensions. From 2012 to 2024, he headed the Lucknow City Bureau, leading coverage of the state's administrative and civic developments while mentoring young reporters. He loves to travel, listen to music. He is fond of eating good food both veg and non veg. He has travelled to several states like West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Family Nadu, Kerela, Bihar, Jharkhand and home state UP.

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