New Delhi: With the Oct 30 deadline for filing claims and objections under the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls approaching, special camps were held across Delhi Sunday to help eligible voters check their names and apply for inclusion or correction.TOI visited one such camp at MCD Bal (Boys’) Pratibha Vidyalaya in Hari Nagar near Ashram and saw people trickling in throughout the day. By 2 pm, 25 to 30 people had visited the camp to enrol or submit Forms 6 or 8.Booth-level officers (BLOs) said the response had been good in the morning, but the turnout slowed in the afternoon. The overall number fell short of the target of covering around 40 people, they added.The BLOs were not only collecting forms and verifying documents but also patiently helping visitors fill them out. They advised applicants to carry self-attested documents and informed them that the camp would remain open until 5 pm.Anshu Vishnoi, a BLO who has almost completed a total of 184 cases assigned to her across camps, said several residents had been reluctant to share their documents during house-to-house visits by the officers, resulting in their names being left off the list.“Now that they have been given an opportunity, they should take advantage of it. While we are circulating messages before every camp and even pursuing pending cases individually, people have to understand that the exercise is for their benefit,” Vishnoi said.Others cited the case of a school employee who moved from another part of Delhi and found her name missing from the list. “Now that she is permanently residing in Hari Nagar, we helped her submit the form as soon as she provided all the documents. But there are also instances where we have twice visited people living in an area permanently, but haven’t got the documents for verification,” said Savita Kumar, an anganwadi worker working at the camp.Hari Nagar resident Yoginder visited the camp with his wife, who originally hails from Rajasthan. She had been unable to get her address changed after marriage. Yoginder, however, did not fill out the SIR form at all.The BLOs said that they had also come across cases where parents were not mapped to the 2002 voter list, but their children found their places on the rolls once the families permanently changed their addresses. “A senior citizen spent most of his time outside India. His name was missing from the list, while his wife’s name was there. Since we could not map him to any entry, we included his name after he filed Form 6,” said Apeksha, who was working at the camp.BLOs said awareness of the exercise remained limited among some sections of the population. “Since the exercise has not been conducted for decades, a section of people who have no access to social media are lagging behind in active participation,” an officer said.The draft electoral rolls published on Aug 31 contained around 97.5 lakh voters, down from approximately 1.45 crore before the revision. The final rolls are scheduled to be published on Dec 4.Delhi CEO office said data on the number of forms submitted for inclusion on the rolls and those for corrections and objections at the 15,000 special camps across 70 assembly constituencies were being compiled till late Sunday. “The data will be shared Monday,” said an official.In a bulletin issued Sunday, the CEO office stated that between Aug 31 and Oct 24, over 2.5 lakh Form 6 applications were received, with West district recording the highest number at 31,380, followed by North West (26,224), East (24,877), South East (24,820) and North East (24,809). Form 6 is filled for inclusion of voters, both deleted and new, on the rolls.During the same period, 19,025 Form 7 applications seeking deletion of names from the rolls and 97,997 Form 8 applications for correction of electoral details, shifting of residence and other changes were received. In addition, 455 Form 6A applications, meant for enrolment of overseas Indian electors, were submitted. Overall, over 3.7 lakh applications across the four categories were received between Aug 31 and Oct 24.
