SIR begins today
Hyderabad: The Special Intensive Revision (SIR), an exercise undertaken by the Election Commission of India ostensibly to verify and revise electoral rolls through house to house enumeration, pre-filled forms, and verification of old voter data, will be starting from Thursday onwards in Telangana and would continue till July 24. During the period, Booth Level Officers (BLOs) will conduct house to house verification and distribute enumeration forms to update voter databases.
As per the ECI’s SIR schedule, the draft electoral rolls would be published on July 31. The period for filing claims and objections will be between July 31 and August 30. The notice phase (issuance, hearing and verification), decision on enumeration forms and disposal of claims and objections to be done concurrently by the EROs will be from July 31 to September 28. The final publication of electoral rolls will be on October 1. Chief Electoral Officer C Sudarshan Reddy said that the Election Commission of India was conducting SIR to include eligible citizens, and to ensure no ineligible citizen is included in the electoral rolls.
The BLOs will visit each household and distribute the pre-printed enumeration forms in duplicate to the existing electors and guide them in filling up the form. The electors will have to fill the relevant details in the enumeration forms and the filled-in enumeration form will be collected by the BLO during the subsequent visit. The BLOs will collect the forms and keep one copy of the enumeration form with him/her and give an acknowledgement of receipt of form on the other copy of enumeration form, which is to be retained by the elector. The officials have urged the voters to contact the BLOs and ensure they come to their houses with enumeration forms.
The elector can also fill the enumeration form online and submit it, for which provision is provided in the ECI website https://voters.eci.gov.in. An online search facility is available to enable electors to search their details in SIR 2002. BLO will also provide Form-6 along with declaration form for enrolment of new electors, if required. The BLO will make at least three visits to the house of each elector.
There are 35,907 (14,750 Urban + 21,157 Rural) polling stations in the state. There will be 33 DEOs, 119 EROs, 882 AEROs, 3,596 BLO supervisors, 35,985 BLOs and 49,018 booth level agents in the state to take up the exercise.
The enumeration form will be made available either through BLO or it can be accessed from the official website. The authorities in the office of the CEO have urged the voters to download the mobile application ECINET for easy access and mapping and approaching the Booth Level Officers (BLOs). Through this mobile app the citizens can fill enumeration forms, find their name in the present voters list and also in the 2002 voters list; they can also book a call from the BLO, track their application, and also lodge a complaint.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has set up a SIR Help Desk at its Head Office, ERO Offices, and Circle Offices across Hyderabad District to assist citizens with Voter Registration (Form-6), Correction of Voter Details (Form-8), Verification of Electoral Roll Details, Guidance on Enumeration Forms, and Clarification of SIR-related Queries.