BENGALURU: In a bid to reduce the number of notices being served to citizens as part of the second phase of the SIR exercise, officials in the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Karnataka, are re-scrutinizing enumeration forms to help citizens. 43,81,335 electors are listed under anomaly/logical discrepancy, and 23,45,500 under the no-mapping category, who are to get notices to establish Indian citizenship to continue to be on the electoral rolls.
Confusion and panic has intensified with people getting notices to be present for their hearings before the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) with the required documents.
“To ease people’s anxiety, we are re-scrutinizing the enumeration form data. In case of a family with more than five children, we have mapped the information of two children with the mother and three with the father and so on. In case of twins, where there is no age gap, we are mapping the children with different parents or even asking them to give birth certificates. Each case is being dealt with individually,” an official said.
There are over 45,000 transgenders in the state, but only 4,500 had given details to the Election Commission. Answering a query of transgenders being listed under logical discrepancy, the official said, “There are incidents where a person in the 2003 SIR exercise was a man and has now changed gender. They are required to submit their medical/ doctor certificates.”
The official added that in many cases, BLOs have been pulled up and asked to submit details to the ERO, where they have linked children of one family staying in the same apartment complex with another family.
There are also cases where the age of electors and that of their parents has been wrongly entered by BLOs. In such cases, though the electors’ names are listed under logical discrepancy, the BLO has been asked to submit details to the ERO for correction.
Citizens need to worry if they do not get a notice, though their name is listed in the anomaly or no-mapping category, as the BLO and ERO have done the back-end work again, the official added.
HC Seeks ECI response on Anganwadi workers as BLOs
Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Thursday sought a response from the ECI on a public interest litigation challenging the deployment of Anganwadi workers as BLOs. A division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice K S Hemalekha passed the order after hearing the public interest litigation filed by the state committee of the Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union, Davanagere.
Advocate Umapathi S, appearing for the petitioner, contended that the appointment of Anganwadi workers as BLOs, has consequences. First, it disrupts the delivery of Integrated Child Development Services and early childhood services to women and children. Second, it imposes onerous election duties on workers who are already burdened with welfare functions. Third, BLO duties are no longer routine clerical functions; they involve sensitive field verification, house-to-house enumeration.