CHENNAI: Even as DMK’s legal wing secretary N R Elango has alleged that there were several confusions on the first day of the SIR process in the state, the AIADMK on Wednesday petitioned Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik alleging that DMK functionaries were intimidating booth level officers (BLOs) to hand over the SIR enumeration forms to them.
AIADMK organisation secretary D Jayakumar and party MP I S Inbadurai submitted a representation.
Talking to reporters after that, Jayakumar alleged that in various parts of the state, ruling party functionaries are threatening the BLOs to hand over the enumeration forms to them, and after the voters filled in the forms, they would receive them instead of the BLOs.
“If this is allowed, the ruling party functionaries will give enumeration forms selectively to the people. Also, there is a possibility of removing the enumeration forms of other parties, which might lead to law and order issues.”
Elango, however, told reporters that the block level officers have not distributed the enumeration forms anywhere.
“When asked, the BLOs said they themselves have not received the forms yet. Out of 30 days, the first day of SIR has gone without even distributing the forms,” he said.
He further said, “In some places in Coimbatore and Tiruppur, BLOs have distributed the forms to the people and asked them to submit the filled in forms the next day. As per the ECI’s announcement, one month is given for the form submission.”
He also alleged that the period for the SIR process, November 4 to December 4, was far from ideal as the crucial enumeration form distribution and collection phase falls during the state’s monsoon, peak agricultural season and when Christmas and Pongal are to follow.
“Neither the ECI officials nor the voters would be able to carry out the exercise properly,” he stated.
He also added the electoral rolls of 2002 and 2005 available in the ECI website were not clear with the names of streets and parts of it are not properly visible.
“There are chances for the existence of many voters with the same name. So, the voters find it difficult and have to invest a lot of time in identifying their names in the electoral rolls. If they fail to fill the forms properly, their names may be removed from the list,” he alleged.
He also informed that DMK has formed a team comprising 8 advocates to look after the SIR complaints from the fields.
When asked about the criticism of various parties that the allocation of just one month for enumeration is insufficient, Jayakumarsaid, “One BLO will be visiting 300 houses, and it can be covered within one month. The booth slips given ahead of the elections take only one week. So, the criticism in this regard is meaningless.”
Responding to the allegation that there is an effort to remove many lakhs of voters from the electoral rolls through the SIR, Jayakumar said, “This is a baseless allegation and the AIADMK will not allow that to happen in Tamil Nadu.