Mysuru: Former minister and JD (S) state working president SR Mahesh on Saturday alleged that booth-level officers (BLOs) engaged in the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in three wards of KR Nagar town had outsourced voter verification work to third parties instead of conducting door-to-door visits.Speaking to reporters, Mahesh said BLOs are required to visit every household, collect information from voters, fill out the necessary forms and obtain their signatures. However, he claimed that this process was not carried out in the three wards concerned. “Instead of conducting door-to-door verification, the BLOs distributed the forms to third parties and offered them Rs 50 per form to fill them out,” he alleged.Mahesh said he had brought the matter to the notice of the deputy commissioner and the Election Commission and sought appropriate action. He also criticised home minister Priyank Kharge for defending the mass SIR exercise allegedly conducted by BLOs at community halls, arguing that such an approach defeats the purpose of individual voter verification.
