Hyderabad: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in Telangana is likely to be delayed by another month amid concerns over the slow pace of pre-SIR mapping in Hyderabad and Medchal-Malkajgiri.Speaking to TOI, Chief Electoral Officer C Sudharshan Reddy, said: “SIR is not happening in April. It may likely be in May. ECI machinery is occupied with the elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Also, there is a census going on in the country.“In Telangana, we don’t deploy teachers for SIR. We have other govt staff, whereas in other states, teachers are doing both census and SIR. Though it is not a problem in Telangana, they have decided to delay the SIR.” He said pre-SIR work is going on in the state.Complaints over BLO visitsPoor progress of pre-SIR mapping in Hyderabad and Medchal-Malkajgiri is being blamed on the low mapping percentages. There are complaints that BLOs are focusing on bastis, slums and certain localities, with residents from several colonies complaining that they have not visited their areas.Sudharshan Reddy said that if BLOs do not visit and complete the pre-SIR mapping now, the task would become difficult during the actual SIR period, as the exercise would last only one month. He said BLOs were expected to conduct field visits and that he was receiving complaints from urban areas about non-visits. He said district election officers in these areas have been asked to look into the matter.Staff diversion, address mismatch add to hurdlesOfficials said the exercise was also being affected by deployment of civic staff to other work. Staff from GHMC, and Cyberabad and Malkajgiri civic bodies have been engaged in the property tax collection drive, as revenue generation has become a priority, affecting the mapping exercise.There are also concerns that awareness about the mapping process appears limited even among some booth-level officers.Residents said they were trying to reach out to the authorities to arrange a special survey for mapping. Several residents from Andhra Pradesh and other states are finding it difficult to complete the mapping owing to differences in address details.
