NEW DELHI, Nov 30: Amid widespread reports of Booth Level Officers (BLO) being under stress and some alleged suicides by them, Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday extended the schedule of ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of Electoral Rolls in 12 States and Union Territories by a week.
The Enumeration phase will now continue till December 11 instead of December 4. The draft list would be out on December 16 instead of December 9 and final list on February 14 instead of February 7, the ECI said in a statement.
The ECI on Sunday in a three-page order said it has allowed one more week for poll officials to publish the draft list of voters. The period for the distribution and return of the enumeration forms which started on November 4 has been extended till December 11 instead of December 4.
In the fresh order, the Election Commission said the draft voter list which was scheduled to be released on December 9 will be published on December 16, and the final list will be published on February 14. Leaders of the Trinamool Congress and other Opposition parties met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in Delhi this week, and urged the EC to reschedule the SIR exercise.
They requested the EC to plan the SIR exercise in a better manner. The request comes amid reports that booth level officers (BLOs) are under immense pressure as they go from door-to-door to complete the mammoth task in a tight schedule.
Death by suicide of BLOs have been reported from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh. The Bengal election is due early next year. The first stage of the three-level SIR exercise in Bengal is coming to a close. The EC has identified 18.70 lakh dead voters still existing in the current voters’ list, till November 29 evening.
The EC has further scaled up its estimated number of voters likely to be deleted from the draft list; the new estimated figure on this count is around 35 lakh. The figure of 35 lakh includes 18.70 lakh voters who have died in addition to duplicate voters, untraceable voters, and voters who have permanently shifted to different states.
The current Phase 2 of the SIR is covering 51 crore voters. Most States had the last SIR of the voter list between 2002 and 2004, and they have nearly completed the mapping of current electors according to the last SIR held in their respective States.
The 12 States and Union Territories where the SIR is being carried out are the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Among these, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala, and West Bengal will go to the polls in 2026. In Assam, where also polls are due in 2026, the revision of electoral rolls was announced separately. It is being called ‘Special Revision.’ The Phase 1 has been held in Bihar which had led to the deletion of more than 68 lakh names from the voter lists.
(Manas Dasgupta)