BENGALURU: It is not mandatory for progeny and self to fill up the 2002 details in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) enumeration forms. Citizens must, however, submit their forms before August 8, 2026 (new date for submission of forms) as a part of the house-to-house survey exercise for easy digitization, said Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, V Anbukkumar.
The CEO said even if citizens have collected a physical copy of the form, they can still fill and submit the form online. “If the 2002 data is not available, citizens can still submit the forms. They will get a notice at a later stage, seeking one of the 12 documents listed out in the enumeration forms. The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) will decide what information is required. The ERO is the final authority in taking decisions,” he said.
Data as on July 22 revealed that out the total number of forms collected, 1,56,00,641 (28.14%) are self mapped and 1,93,30,040 (34.87%/) are mapped by progeny. 17,19,836 (3.10%) forms are not mapped.
Anbukkumar said in total 5,53,70,473 (98.89%) forms have been distributed and in another couple of days, 100% will be achieved. This is the 23rd day of the exercise, and 14 days are left. So far, 3,67,81,041 (66.35%) forms have been digitised. Of the total number, 5,93,787 (1.07%) forms were received online.
The data also showed that so far there are 5,87,457 (1.06%) electors listed as untraceable/shifted, 26,32,229 (4.75%) as permanently shifted, 9,81,642 (1.77%) as dead, 2,70,659 (0.49%) as already enrolled and 12,344 (0.02%) as others.
The CEO said, for each of these cases, a spot mahazar is being done by the Booth-Level Officers (BLOs) and each document is being signed by the Booth-Level Agents (BLAs).
The signatures of neighbours and other election officials are taken for each of the reports of those listed as absent, dead, shifted, duplicate and others (ASDDO). So far, 44,84,331 (8.09%) voters are listed under this category, he said.
“The BLOs have been directed to share the details with the BLAs to verify the data to ensure there are no anomalies. A meeting was also held with political parties on Wednesday, and they were requested to do the same. The BLAs can also collect the forms and hand them over to the BLOs,” Anbukkumar said.
Pertaining to cases of errors in mapping and data missing of electors in Uttarahalli and Bommanahalli constituencies, Anbukkumar said that the complaints were raised on July 15, and the issue was sorted on July 18. The matter was also escalated to the Election Commission of India, as pages in PDF were not being converted to Excel and hence, the mapping had errors. About the similar issue in Varthur and Mahadevapura Assembly constituencies, Anbukkumar said a report from the EROs and DEO has been sought.
The CEO also admitted that due to an increase in traffic on the ECI website, the servers are down. Constant efforts are being made to set them right. Citizens need not panic, he said.
Addressing the concern of poor digitisation and distribution in areas under Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) limits, the CEO said 1,03,57,684 forms have been distributed and 31,21,089 (30.04%) have been digitised. He said that a total of 23,86,132 (22.97%) are listed as ASDDO, which is the highest compared to other places. Most of them are listed as permanent/shifted – 16,62,199 (16%) – and 4,51,663 (4.35%) are untraceable/absent. This is causing the delay in digitisation. Also, around six lakh additional stickers to be placed on houses of people have been printed for the exercise, he said.