Pune: A multitude of queries over the month-long Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise that will cover nearly 9.78 crore electors in the state from Tuesday have cropped up.Chief Electoral Officer S Chockalingam on Monday said that if a voter’s details cannot be mapped despite field verification, the elector will be issued a notice for a hearing and can produce documents to establish eligibility. Every electoral registration officer (ERO) is supported by five to fifteen assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) enabling hearings to be conducted close to voters so that they need not travel long distances.He clarified that temporary migration will not affect a person’s eligibility as a voter. “If an elector is away from home due to work, for education or any other temporary reason, any adult member of the family can sign the verification form on the elector’s behalf,” Chockalingam added.The Election Commission of India (ECI) will enable online submission of the form through the ECINET and Voters’ Service Portal. Digital submission does not replace the mandatory physical verification by the BLO.“Even if an elector fills the form online and uploads the documents, the BLO will still visit his or her residence to verify the identity, address and uploaded documents, record the verification through the ECINET application before forwarding the form along with supporting documents to the ERO or AERO for scrutiny. Only those online submissions that are subsequently verified during the house visit will be included in the draft electoral roll,” the CEO said.Chockalingam said BLOs have been instructed to make evening visits where urban voters are living in rented accommodation or away during office hours. Voters can, from June 29, download, fill and upload the form using the updated ECI application. Once the form is uploaded, the BLO is automatically notified. Electors can also use the “Book a Call” facility on the ECI Voter App to schedule an interaction with the BLO.The CEO urged electors to provide their cellphone numbers while submitting the form. Many voters do not have their cellphone numbers linked to their electoral records, making SMS communication difficult. An elector can give a family member’s number too. Linking a mobile number will make services such as downloading digital EPIC cards much easier, he said.Unreturned forms, Chockalingam said, would go into four categories — absent, shifted, deceased and duplicate. Since no one is available to sign the form, their names will not appear in the draft electoral roll. “The classified lists will be displayed at designated public offices, uploaded on the websites of the chief electoral officer and district election officers, and shared with booth-level agents (BLAs) of recognised political parties, who will jointly verify the entries with BLOs before a final decision,” he added.The CEO said SIR has built-in systems to identify both photo-similar entries and demographically similar entries. If an elector is enrolled at two places, the BLO will verify the person’s actual residence, and the elector will retain one registration.If an elector has been mapped to an incorrect entry, the earlier mapping must first be removed before fresh mapping is done. The signed declaration of the elector is central to the verification process.“Only after these verification processes, hearings and scrutiny are completed will the final electoral roll be published. NGOs, civil society organisations and citizen groups can send suggestions to help in this massive drive,’’ he said.
