BENGALURU: The last date for house-to-house verification as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise has been revised for the second time. The last date now is August 17 instead of August 8.
The date was previously revised from July 29 to August 8. Then it was cited that Booth Level Officers (BLOs) in Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) needed more time to track electors, distribute, collect and digitize the forms.
This time it is because the number of Absent, Shifted, Dead, Duplicate and Others (ASDDO) is very high in the state. It is highest in the four districts under GBA -- BBMP Central, BBMP North, BBMP South and BBMP Urban -- and detailed verification requires time.
CEO Karnataka V Anbukkumar said since the ASDDO list is long, a thorough check is required. This was done in Mumbai and Delhi earlier, and there is nothing wrong in seeking extra time for verification, he added.
Election officials said citizens, political parties and BLOs had requested for more time as three days is too short for verification. Citizens now have sufficient time to verify the ASDDO list, officials said.
According to the new schedule, the draft roll will be published on August 24 and the period for filing claims and objections is from August 24 to September 23. The final electoral roll will be published on October 27.
On August 7, the number of electors under ASDDO was 1,09,83,901 (19.81%), down from 1,10,40,534 on August 6. In the four districts of Bengaluru, the number was 48,39,933 -- 17,74,626 (44.13%) in BBMP Urban, 10,83,747 (46.64%) in BBMP North, 8,93,731 (47.29%) in BBMP Central and 10,87,829 (50.72%) in BBMP South.
Data also showed that 15,90,165 (2.87%) electors were listed under untraceable/absent, 66,14,954 (11.93%) as permanently shifted, 16,34,326 (1.26%) as dead, 6,96,536 (1.26%) as duplicate and 4,47,920 (0.81%) as others, including those who were not willing to sign the forms.
The CEO said electors who have signed and submitted the forms to BLOs will be included in the rolls. Those who were not present at the registered address, have not signed and returned their forms and have been marked ASDDO will not be included in the rolls.
The CEO on Friday wrote to District Election Officers (DEOs) to help out citizens. Electors listed under absent and permanently shifted categories were asked to fill Form-6 and hand it to BLOs or upload it online.
Names of persons who submit Form-6 during the claims and objections period will appear in the final electoral roll. As on date, 3,83,345 Form-6 were submitted. and 8,25,064 Form-8 (for corrections) were filed. The DEOs were also directed to organise special drives on all Saturdays and Sundays to address the concerns of voters and receive forms.