Pune: The state govt may write to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) seeking an extension to the timeline for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Congress MLC Satej Patil flagged the mounting workload on booth-level officers (BLOs), manpower shortages and monsoon-related disruptions in the legislative council on Thursday.The assurance came from higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil. The SIR exercise is currently scheduled to conclude on July 29. The MLC, through a Point of Information, told the House that each BLO was assigned nearly 1,000 voter forms, with two forms required to be filled during the revision process.The minister said, “What Satej Patil is saying is a fact. Govt will write to the Chief Electoral Officer and approach the Election Commission of India to seek an extension of the SIR timeframe.”Satej Patil said that in most places there was only one BLO, often a teacher. Referring to a Supreme Court ruling, he said teachers were expected to discharge both their academic responsibilities and BLO duties simultaneously, making it difficult to balance the two.Each form takes around seven minutes to complete and the continuous rain in Mumbai, Pune and rural parts of the state has disrupted door-to-door verification, preventing many BLOs from reaching voters. The extensive documentation required under the SIR exercise has further slowed the process, with enumeration in some areas remaining below 5%, he said.Calling the current arrangement impractical, the MLC urged govt to appoint additional BLOs and deploy govt employees other than teachers for the exercise so that academic work is not affected.
