BENGALURU: There is no need for people to panic if their name is not in the voter list, said Bengaluru District Election Officer and Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) Chief Commissioner Maheshwar Rao.
“The Election Commission will take steps to organise a special campaign to include eligible voters in the list,” he told reporters on Thursday regarding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls. He said steps are being taken to organise a special campaign to include new names in the voter list as per the directions of the Election Commission of India (ECI). He said those eligible to include their names in the voter list can apply through Form 6.
He added that there are 56,99,660 voters in the draft voter list. Due to non-recognition of names in the 2002 voter list and other discrepancies, 24,06,044 people were being served notices and questioned.
“Most of these inquiries have already been completed. Instead of conducting inquiries, the ECI has directed the booth level officers (BLOs) to visit their homes directly and conduct verification, and necessary action is being taken accordingly,” he said.
In Bengaluru Urban district, 2.19 lakh people have submitted Form 6 to get their names added to the voter list. After the disposal and verification of various applications, including Form 7 and Form 8, around 2 lakh voters are expected to be added. In this context, the total number of voters in the city is expected to reach about 59 lakh, he said.
A total of 5,549 applications have been submitted under Form 7 in Bengaluru Urban district, out of which 2,468 applications have been approved so far. This is 44% of the total applications, Rao stated.
He added that booth level agents (BLAs) are allowed to submit a maximum of 10 applications under Form 7. If the number of applications submitted exceeds this limit, they will be scrutinised, and action will be taken as per the rules. In this regard, 1,103 Form 7 applications have been rejected in Malleswaram. He said the mass applications submitted in other areas are also being scrutinised and action will be taken as per the rules.