Bengaluru: Voters who receive notices over ‘logical discrepancies’ in the ongoing SIR of electoral rolls can breathe easy, with officials clarifying that such notices are meant primarily to verify documents and do not automatically imply deletion from the rolls.Electoral registration officers (EROs) will scrutinise documents locally and take an on-the-spot decision on whether a voter is eligible, officials said. In most cases, the ERO is expected to examine one or two of the 11 documents a voter can produce and verbally convey the decision during the hearing.However, for voters who are ‘not mapped’, documents will be sent to the district electoral officer (DRO) for verification. The district official will report back to the ERO with a confirmation or rejection.If a voter is found ineligible, the ERO will communicate the decision through a speaking order issued via the booth level officer (BLO), usually within a week to 10 days.“This order can be used to appeal to a higher authority: The DRO and in case of a second appeal, the chief electoral officer (CEO),” Anbu Kumar, CEO, told TOI Wednesday.He said voters found eligible by the ERO will only be informed during the hearing and will not receive a speaking order.An official from the CEO’s office said EROs were instructed during training not to delete names over ‘logical discrepancies’ unless absolutely necessary. “It is the ‘no mapping’ cases that will receive greater scrutiny,” the official said.Officials said cases involving spelling mistakes will attract the least scrutiny. While the BLO can undersign a letter in such cases, the voter receiving the notice will still have to attend the hearing.However, despite the clarifications, voters continued to face confusion and setbacks. One Bengaluru voter who could not find the 2002 details and therefore did not enter them in the enumeration form was surprised to receive a notice citing ‘name mismatch’ instead of ‘not mapped’.An official said this could have happened if the BLO subsequently located the mapped data and updated it.“The voter would have to appear for the hearing and share one or two documents for the ERO to verify,” the official said, adding that attendance was mandatory and that photographic records of the proceedings were being maintained.In another case, a voter marked as shifted in the ASDDO list spent nearly an hour filling Form 6, only to discover after submission that the name entered did not match the name on her Aadhaar card. She was given the option of submitting a fresh form with the name as it appears on Aadhaar or applying offline through the BLO.Meanwhile, a voter from TC Palya in Bengaluru who said he had voted thrice in the past, claimed there was no door-to-door enumeration in his area. He said there is now no clarity on which document he needs to submit.Documents required from voters will depend on their date of birth. Those born before July 1, 1987, can submit any one of the 11 documents listed on the reverse of the enumeration form to establish their date and place of birth. Voters born between July 1, 1987, and Dec 2, 2004, will have to submit one of the listed documents for themselves and another for a parent to establish the required details.For those born after Dec 2, 2004, three documents will be required — one each for the voter, father and mother — establishing their respective date and place of birth.
