New Delhi: The ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi is likely to get another extension to allow room for reverification of nearly 47.6 lakh voters whose names were deleted from the draft electoral rolls published on Aug 31.The large number of voters up for reverification has put pressure on the existing schedule. Under this timeline, the window for claims and objections — when deleted but eligible voters and first-time applicants can apply for inclusion in the rolls — is set to end on Nov 25.At least two officials said that the existing SIR schedule is likely to be extended, but the revised timetable has not yet been finalised. “The issue will be taken up for discussion in the next meeting and finalised,” said one of the officials, adding that the extension could be for about two weeks to provide sufficient time to process reverification of absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) voters.In a significant relief to those left out of the draft rolls, the office of Delhi chief electoral officer (CEO) last week announced that all 47.6 lakh voters marked as ASDD during the enumeration exercise will be given another opportunity to submit their forms.The move seeks to allow voters who failed to submit their forms during the house-to-house enumeration phase between June 30 and Aug 17 to seek inclusion in the rolls. They will be required to submit fresh enumeration forms, prescribed declarations and supporting documents to establish their eligibility. Nearly 15,000 BLOs of Delhi are likely to soon start distributing fresh forms at the registered addresses of the ASDD voters to facilitate them in filling them out. The ASDD voters who fill out enumeration forms will not have to fill forms for inclusion because these will be sufficient for their inclusion in the final rolls.“Voters who have already submitted Form 6 for fresh enrolment during the SIR need not submit the enumeration form again. Their applications will be processed by the respective EROs,” said an official.Since the draft electoral rolls were published on Aug 31, over 3 lakh Form 6 applications for inclusion were received as of Nov 11. West district recorded the highest number of applications at 37,140, followed by North East (29,470), South East (29,407) and North West (29,175). New Delhi recorded the lowest number at 5,487. The numbers include both ASDD and first-time voters.Delhi’s draft SIR rolls had around 97.5 lakh electors against nearly 1.45 crore who were on the electoral rolls on June 30 when the SIR began in Delhi.Out of over 33 lakh electors issued SIR notices for no-mapping and logical discrepancies like spelling mismatch, 32.5 lakh or 98.2% have been verified and earmarked for inclusion in the final rolls scheduled to be published on Dec 22, a deadline extended from Dec 4. Of the 33 lakh, 13.8 lakh had been served notices for no-mapping with previous SIR rolls and 19.3 lakh had been flagged for logical discrepancies.
