Hyderabad: With digitisation of voter enumeration forms under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) lagging in Hyderabad and its neighbouring urban districts, Congress and BRS have sought an extension of the deadline for completing the exercise.Congress leaders met Telangana chief electoral officer C Sudharshan Reddy on Tuesday and submitted a representation seeking more time. BRS has also sought an extension.Sudharshan Reddy told TOI that the Election Commission has neither communicated an extension nor sought a proposal from the state election authorities.“We have not asked the EC for an extension, nor has it given us any instructions. We will forward the representations of both Congress and BRS on extension to EC,” he said.The CEO said the main concern was the slow progress in Hyderabad. “Electors, particularly in urban areas, are finding it difficult to fill up the forms. The exercise has progressed well in rural areas. We have set up help desks, conducted training and are creating awareness on how to fill up the forms,” he said.He said electors in urban areas were taking time to complete forms even after collecting them, despite booth-level officers (BLOs) making multiple visits.The SIR status report as of July 12 showed that while 99.9% of enumeration forms had been distributed across Telangana, only 37.4% had been digitised. Of the state’s 3,38,26,448 electors, forms had been distributed to 3,38,15,364.The gap was wider in the state’s most populous districts. Medchal-Malkajgiri recorded the lowest digitisation rate at 9.8%, followed by Hyderabad at 13.7% and Rangareddy at 23.4%.Hyderabad, with more than 47 lakh electors, had digitised about 6.5 lakh forms. The figures showed that although distribution was nearing completion, digitisation remained slow in high-density urban areas.Smaller districts ahead in digitisationDistricts with smaller electorates recorded higher digitisation rates. Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri led the state with 72%, followed by Nalgonda at 63.2% and Kumaram Bheem Asifabad at 62.1%.Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri, which has about 4.6 lakh electors, has digitised more than 3.31 lakh forms. The difference between urban and smaller districts reflected the scale of the exercise in Hyderabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Rangareddy.Distribution, however, was almost complete across districts. Medak recorded 99.91% distribution and Vikarabad 99.7%, while most other districts were at or close to 100%.Hyderabad district in charge minister Ponnam Prabhakar told the CEO that the revision was progressing slowly across all 15 assembly constituencies in Hyderabad district and that the exercise remained incomplete.“Only 10 days remain. We have requested an extension of the deadline,” he told the media after meeting the CEO.“Complaints are being received that BLOs are not visiting homes and forms are not being distributed properly,” he added.
