HYDERABAD: Election Commission (EC) has extended the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Telangana by 10 days, revising the schedule after considering a report submitted by the chief electoral officer (CEO), Telangana, and representations from political parties.The commission issued orders on Wednesday revising the SIR schedule, with Oct 1, 2026, remaining the qualifying date. The extension follows a request from the CEO for additional time, citing slow progress in urban areas, where the collection, filling and digitisation of enumeration forms have lagged.Under the revised schedule, house-to-house visits by booth-level officers (BLOs), earlier scheduled to conclude on July 24, would continue until Aug 3. The publication of draft electoral rolls has consequently been deferred from July 31 to Aug 10.The period for filing claims and objections would be from Aug 10 to Sept 9. Claims and objections would be disposed of by Oct 8, while the final electoral rolls would be published on Oct 12 instead of Oct 1.Urban districts trail state averageData available as of Wednesday shows that enumeration forms have been distributed to nearly all of Telangana’s 3.38 crore electors, but only 54.8% were digitised.Of the state’s 3.38 crore electors, forms were distributed to all voters, accounting for 100% coverage. However, only 1.85 crore forms were digitised. The digitisation rate was considerably lower in the three urban districts of Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy.CEO C Sudarshan Reddy told TOI that the extension was necessitated by the slow pace of the exercise in urban areas.“The main reason for extending the schedule is the lag in urban areas. While the distribution of enumeration forms has been completed, collection, filling up forms and digitisation has not progressed at the required pace. Giving urban voters 10 more days would provide a breather and help improve the process,” Sudarshan Reddy said.Parties to be informed in writingIn its communication to the Telangana CEO, the EC said the revised schedule was issued following the CEO’s request made on Wednesday. It directed that all officials concerned be informed of the revised timeline and that the modified schedule be publicised through all available media.The EC also directed the CEO to inform political parties about the extension in writing.Political parties have sought additional time, raising concerns that the exercise was progressing more slowly in Hyderabad and other urban districts than in rural areas. The revised schedule would give electors more time to complete and submit enumeration forms and allow election officials to digitise the data before publication of the draft rolls.
