CHENNAI: Nearly 20 days after the Election Commission of India started its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) drive in Tamil Nadu, 6.16 crore (96.22%) of the total 6.41 crore voters in the state have received their SIR enumeration forms till Monday.
While 50% of the completed forms have been returned to Booth Level Officers (BLOs), nearly 3.20 crore forms have been digitised so far, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Archana Patnaik said on Monday.
Addressing a press conference at the secretariat, she said, “The ECI is not considering extending the exercise beyond December 4. The Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) cannot remove even a single voter from the rolls without conducting inquiry or assigning a proper reason.
”The CEO said that during the publication of electoral rolls, the following will be mentioned clearly: Dead voters, absentees, permanently shifted, duplicate entries, and those who fail to receive the forms. All this information will be displayed in all rural and urban local bodies. Besides, the details of draft rolls will be uploaded to the district websites and the CEO website.
Total manpower involved in the SIR exercise is 83,256 personnel. Around 33,000 volunteers have also been engaged. There are 2.45 lakh Booth Level Agents (BLAs) in TN, the highest in the country.
About 68,467 BLOs are working in the state, and ECI has also given additional BLOs recently. As of date, 327 BLOs have completed their enumeration work fully. Asked whether SIR forms will be issued to the shifted voters, the CEO said that if they have shifted their residences within the constituency, forms are being issued to them.
If they move to another constituency, forms cannot be given.
Responding to a question, the CEO said in Chennai, forms have been distributed to 96.27% voters. While 50% completed forms have been received, 33.59% forms have been digitised so far. About two lakh forms have been received online from across the state.
Asked if enumeration forms filled in a wrong manner or with insufficient details will find a place in the draft rolls, the CEO replied positively. Later, an official clarified that after the publication of the draft rolls, the EROs and BLOs will contact the voters about defects in the forms and about the documents to be adduced. No forms will be rejected since the ECI has made it mandatory that the EROs are accountable for the deletion of any name from the rolls.
Questioned about the allegation that there is political interference in the functioning of the BLOs, the CEO denied that and said the BLOs are acting independently, and if there are any specific allegations, they could be addressed. So far, Form 6 (for inclusion of 18 + voters) has been issued to 3,000 people.