BENGALURU: The list of voters who will be served notices is likely to be displayed at polling booths by Friday, as chief electoral officer (CEO) Anbu Kumar confirmed that the gazette notification (empowering AEROs) was issued on Thursday.These lists at the booths are the only way for voters to know if they are due to receive notices before BLOs arrive at their houses. Chief electoral officer Anbu Kumar had earlier announced that polling booths will have these lists displayed for voters at those booths.There is no online provision to check if a voter is due to receive a notice.However when TOI visited booths, Thursday, polling booths had not yet displayed the notice list. Four days had passed since the claims and notice period for the special intensive revision (SIR) began on Aug 24.The lists are expected to be out as soon as Friday in the rest of the state and as late as Saturday for Bengaluru which has more than half of the 43 lakh voters due for notices.Officials from the office of the CEO said that the gazette notification issued on Thursday, has now conferred the powers of EROs on AEROs.“Consequently, voters will be connected to these AEROs who will not just generate notices for them, but also conduct the hearing,” they explained the reason for the delayed ‘notice list’.With the notification in place, the state now has 4,258 AEROs to generate and dispose of 43.8 lakh notices given to voters for ‘no mapping’ or ‘logical discrepancies’. AEROs will work alongside EROs.Once these are generated, the BLOs will give the notices to voters within a day and the hearing will be scheduled seven days later, an ERO said. In her case, she said, there won’t be any list. But the BLO will deliver the information and notices to the voters.Meanwhile, head teachers of the schools (polling booths) visited remained oblivious to the process till Thursday.For instance, the head teacher at a school in Chikpet that had three booths associated with it redirected the reporter to another school nearby. The same was done by the head teacher of another girls’ school in Shivajinagar.“People come to vote here but you will have to check a nearby school for SIR related issues,” she said.The ongoing academic term, with students on the premises of the institution while the process is on, also remains a challenge.“Holidays only begin in October, and we do not know how to manage the two,” said a head teacher.
