Ghaziabad: The district administration has launched an extensive door-to-door campaign, akin to the first phase of special intensive revision (SIR), this time to identify and bring left-out voters back into the rolls. Under the drive, booth-level officers (BLOs) will be dispatched, with each of the 3,073 being assigned 350 households. RWAs have been urged to identify eligible residents for enrolment.The move follows CM Yogi Adityanath himself questioning the absence of more than a crore voters who were on the roll in the panchayat poll but were omitted from the final roll published earlier this year after SIR in UP.Addressing a media event in Ayodhya on Nov 7, the CM alleged that nearly 1.3 crore voters have been left out of the state’s electoral rolls. Of these, 66 lakh voters were allegedly enrolled in the state’s panchayat electoral rolls but not in the assembly voter list. The CM claimed 55 lakh voters, who were beneficiaries of govt welfare schemes, had also been left out.The Opposition too has been accusing the NDA of “vote theft” over large-scale deletion of names and seeking the resignation of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.On Thursday, district magistrate and district election officer Ravindra Kumar Mandar said during the exercise, BLOs will verify existing voter registrations, identify eligible residents whose names are missing from the electoral roll and assist them in filling out Form 6. Those seeking to shift their voter registration from another constituency or state to Ghaziabad would be guided to submit Form 8.The district administration has deployed five electoral registration officers (EROs), 26 assistant electoral registration officers (AEROs) and 865 supervisors to oversee the exercise.Ghaziabad saw the second-highest deletions in the final electoral rolls published on April 10 after the SIR exercise in the state in percentage terms after capital Lucknow (22.9%). While 5.7 lakh names (20.2%) were removed from Ghaziabad’s list, Lucknow saw 9.1 lakh deletions. UP’s electorate was itself downsized by a little over 2 crore voters, a shade less than the population of Sri Lanka.Sahibabad, the state’s largest constituency by population, saw 30.4% deletions that shaved off 3.2 lakh names, the highest for an assembly segment in the state. Of the four other constituencies, Ghaziabad saw 16.5% deletions, with nearly 80,000 struck off. In Loni, 15% of names (nearly 90,000) were removed from the pre-SIR list of 4.5 lakh. Muradnagar’s electorate was downsized by 14.6% as 70,000 names were struck off, and Modinagar by 7.8% as it saw 30,000 deletions.Mandar urged resident welfare associations (RWAs) and apartment owners associations (AOA) of housing societies to identify residents who have been left out during the SIR exercise so that they can be covered during the ongoing Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls.“RWAs have an important role in ensuring that every eligible resident in their respective societies is included in the electoral rolls. They should coordinate with BLOs, spread awareness among residents and encourage every household to verify the voter registration details of all family members aged 18 years and above. Our objective is to ensure that no eligible citizen is left out,” Mandar said.He also asked industrial establishments, educational institutions, colleges and fair-price ration shop dealers to identify eligible employees, students, parents and residents and facilitate voter enrolment.The DM warned that negligence or indiscipline in election-related duties would not be tolerated. Departmental heads have been directed to relieve employees assigned BLO and supervisory responsibilities from their regular duties to ensure effective implementation of the exercise.Mandar also urged residents to check their names through the Voter Service Portal, Voter Helpline app or ECINET app.As per the list approved by the ECI, the district, including the part of the Dhaulana assembly constituency falling within it, will have 865 polling centres and 3,073 polling stations. Sahibabad has the highest number of polling locations at 1,033, followed by Loni (540), Muradnagar (504), Ghaziabad (489), Modinagar (382) and Dhaulana (125).
