SEC forms team of officers to monitor house visits of BLOs

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BENGALURU: Following the confusion over the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the State Election Commission now appears to have woken up. It is moving to keep a close watch on booth-level officers (BLOs) who are not going door-to-door and has formed a team of officials to monitor the BLOs.

Voter revision work is progressing at full speed in the state and as per the rules, BLOs must go door to door and distribute enumeration forms. However, there have been several complaints that forms are being distributed in groups at mosques and wedding halls instead.

Following these complaints, the State Election Commission has taken action and notices have been issued to 35 BLOs with a warning that they must compulsorily go door-to-door to distribute enumeration forms, failing which they will face suspension.

To monitor whether BLOs are actually conducting the SIR process by going house-to-house and whether they are meeting their targets, a team of five officers has reportedly been formed. Additionally, if voters are not at home or have relocated when BLOs visit, that must be recorded in a panchnama. A report with video and photo evidence must also be submitted. BLOs have been told to carry out voter revision properly without any malpractice.

Out of 5.55 crore voters, enumeration forms have been distributed to 4.45 crore voters and about 80 per cent of the enumeration forms have been distributed so far. The distribution work is expected to be completed soon, and voters must return the forms by July 29. Measures have been taken to carry out SIR without any confusion.

“The SIR exercise started on June 30 and will go on till July 29 and enumeration forms are being distributed. So far, 5.5 crore enumeration forms have been distributed which means, 81 per cent forms have been distributed. The BLOs have updated the information on the app. In 112 constituencies, over 90 per cent of the forms have been distributed”, said Anbukumar, Chief Electoral Officer, State Election Commission.

“Across the state 1.24 lakh BLAs have been appointed by various political parties. Parallelly, digitisation of the data is going on. For field verifications, teams of five officers led by Joint CEOs and going to the districts. Whereever the distribution of enumeration forms is low, the teams will work to enhance coverage. Regarding the complaints received so far, suitable action is being taken”, he added.

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