ADILABAD: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls is unfolding as two very different stories in Adilabad district. While villages are moving steadily through the exercise, urban areas are proving far more difficult for officials due to migrations and duplicate voter registrations.
Election officials say distribution of SIR application forms is almost complete, with about 85% of forms delivered by Friday. Digitisation, however, is still in its early stages, with only about 2.5% of the forms uploaded so far.
One village has already emerged as a model. At Kedarpur polling station in Boath mandal, 279 of the 280 registered voters have completed the digitisation process, making it the first village in the district to almost finish the exercise.
Adilabad district has 465,090 voters, including 250,138 in Adilabad Assembly constituency and 214,952 in Boath. Officials said voter mapping is around 76% complete, while anomalies have been identified in nearly 39% of the electoral rolls. Around 595 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) have been deployed to distribute forms and collect them for digitisation.
The biggest challenge, officials admit, is in urban areas. Many residents have shifted between villages and towns over the years, while some government employees continue to have electoral records linked to their native places. Such cases are slowing verification.
Some voters complained that BLOs were difficult to contact
Adilabad Revenue Divisional Officer P Jagadeshwar Rao said the first week was devoted to distributing forms and that digitisation would now gather pace. From July 6, each BLO has been tasked with digitising at least 10 applications a day under the supervision of sector officers, with officials expressing confidence that the exercise will be completed within the prescribed timeline.