Pune: Residents of NIBM Road and NIBM Road Annexe said booth-level officers (BLOs) are refusing to conduct door-to-door verification despite repeated requests.BLOs said the exercise has become overwhelming because of an enormous workload and incorrect residential addresses in electoral records, making home visits difficult.Tara Singh, president of Imperial Towers Housing Society on NIBM Road Annexe, said no BLO has visited the society so far. “My family has five members and each of us has a different BLO. When we contacted them, we were told to visit our polling booth near Bhangire Hospital in Mohammadwadi. When we asked why they weren’t conducting home visits, they said people keep coming to the booth between noon and 5pm and if they stepped out, those applicants would have to return. Many residents of our society are now going to the polling booth instead,” Singh said.Rashik Nagarwala, a resident of Ganga Kingston Housing Society, said the absence of home visits was creating hardships, particularly for senior citizens living alone. “Many elderly residents have children living in other cities or abroad. Society members are helping them, but the district administration had assured that BLOs would visit homes. This exercise cannot be reduced to mere paperwork. Genuine door-to-door verification is essential to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the electoral rolls,” he said.Residents flagged technical and procedural issues. Sandip K, a resident of Nyati Estate in Undri, said his progeny mapping could not be completed because his parents’ electoral records from before 2002 could not be traced despite them being registered voters.“The BLO marked my form as ‘No Link’ and said I would receive a notice asking for documentary proof to establish the linkage. Locating old electoral rolls itself is a huge challenge,” he said.Singh described the overall process as tedious and confusing. “I somehow located an old PDF of the electoral rolls. If the names on the Aadhaar and voter ID match exactly, the process can be completed online. But many voter cards have spelling errors. I had to search the 2002 electoral rolls of Jodhpur to trace my daughter-in-law’s records. After we completed the process, the BLOs said they were overburdened to upload the data immediately and that someone else would eventually do it. They assured us there was no need to panic because there are no elections in Maharashtra at present and any mismatch could be corrected later,” Singh, president of Anandvan Parisar Residents’ Foundation, saidDistrict administration officials have maintained that voters should contact their assigned BLOs and request home visits. However, residents claim they are instead being told to visit camps or polling stations.“If BLOs are supposed to visit homes and complete the verification, why are residents being told to come to the camps? The administration should look into this and ensure that the process is implemented as promised,” Shankarrao Sant, a resident of NIBM Road, said.BLOs said they were under immense pressure. “I am a govt school teacher in Mohammadwadi. We teach in the mornings and carry out SIR duties afterwards. We don’t mind visiting homes, but many addresses in the records are incorrect and we end up wasting valuable time locating voters,” a BLO, requesting anonymity, said.Another BLO said each officer was handling nearly 2,000 forms. “Managing such a large volume of work is extremely difficult. We are prioritising home visits for senior citizens and are doing them wherever required. Others also need to understand the practical challenges so that we can complete this exercise together,” the BLO said.
