CHENNAI: Even as the petition filed by DMK organisation secretary RS Bharathi is expected to be taken up for hearing on November 6 or 7, the enumeration for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls began across the state on Tuesday.
The SIR is taking place in Tamil Nadu after a gap of two decades. The last SIR took place in Tamil Nadu in 2002 (197 Assembly constituencies) and 2005 (37 Assembly constituencies).
As part of this exercise, the house-to-house enumeration started on Tuesday, and this will go on till December 4. Booth-level officers (BLOs) will visit every household to distribute partially pre-filled enumeration forms in duplicate to all existing voters and guide them in filling the form. If BLO finds that any house is locked or closed, she/he will make at least three visits.
Voters may also download their enumeration forms and submit the filled-in forms online. The dates of the visits of the BLOs will be shared in advance and widely publicised in the locality by the electoral registration officers.
Meanwhile, CPI state secretary M Veerapandiyan, in a statement, alleged that the SIR has failed at the very outset since when the BLOs began distributing enumeration forms door-to-door, at 10 am, they found most houses locked or the eligible voters absent.
“This is because, in industrial cities such as Tiruppur, Vellore, Coimbatore, Erode, Chennai and its suburban districts, Tiruchy and Madurai, workers and business owners usually leave for their workplace by 8 am,” he added
Veerpandiyan said between 2005 and 2024, names have been added to the electoral rolls during many summary revisions. “Now, the BLOs appointed by the ECI are struggling to verify in which polling station those names currently appear. Adding to this confusion, the Commission has frozen the 2024 electoral roll,” the CPI leader said.
Meanwhile, Chief Electoral Officer Archana Patnaik, in a release said the district election officers are overseeing and inspecting the overall implementation of the SIR in their respective districts.
Deputy Election Commissioner Bhanu Prakash Yeturu and Director Krishna Kumar Tiwari from ECI visited Tamil Nadu and reviewed the progress of the ongoing SIR, especially the commencement of distribution of enumeration forms across the state. In continuation, the deputy election commissioner will also undertake field visits to districts.
