Should we wait for BLOs’ visit or contact them? Electors in a quandary as deadline nears
A camp organised for voters for the SIR exercise on the premises of a lawn used to conduct weddings in Kondhwa
Pune: Kondhwa resident Vandana Patil has been extra busy this week. When she looked online for the voter’s details of her family, she found something strange.“All four of us have the same address and vote in the same area but in different polling stations. We were assigned three different BLOs for the SIR. Not one of them has visited us so far to deliver the enumeration forms. Now, we are told to contact different BLOs separately before the deadline. It is confusing because we expected the process to happen at our doorstep,” Patil said.As the Aug 8 deadline for Maharashtra’s Special Intensive Revision (MahaSIR) of electoral rolls approaches, hundreds of residents from several pockets said they are still waiting for booth-level officers (BLOs) to visit their homes. In many households, like Patil’s, members of the same family have been assigned different BLOs. They are all unsure whether to continue waiting or approach the officials to complete the verification process.Sheela Deshpande from Kothrud is among those uncertain about her and her family’s inclusion in the SIR drive. “We have been waiting for the BLO as we do not want to hand over our documents to anyone other than an authorised election official. We were told they would visit homes, but nobody has come yet. With the deadline approaching, we are unsure whether we should wait or visit the polling centre with our papers,” Deshpande said.Such complaints are rising even as the state has progressed with the exercise. According to Election Commission data available till Wednesday, enumeration form distribution in Maharashtra was 85% and 53.9% were digitised.Pune district, however, continued to trail the state average. Only 66.6% forms were distributed in the district, while digitisation stood at 37.4%, making it one of the slowest districts despite the approaching deadline. Pune election officials have roped in students to speed up digitisation work.Election officials said different BLOs were assigned to members of the same family because electoral rolls are organised by polling parts rather than by households. A senior election official told TOI, “BLOs have been instructed to visit every household at least three times before marking a voter unavailable. If family members are enrolled in different polling parts, more than one BLO may be assigned. We are reviewing the progress daily and ensuring that field staff complete the visits before the deadline.”Another official said voters who have not been contacted need not panic. “Our instructions are clear. BLOs should make repeated visits and leave their contact details wherever possible. We want every eligible voter to be covered through home visits before the exercise concludes,” the official said.With a little over a fortnight left for the deadline, citizen groups said they hope the promised door-to-door verification will take place instead of voters having to chase multiple BLOs to complete a process meant to be carried out at their doorstep. “Maharashtra has no elections scheduled now. There should be an extension of another month given to the state to complete the exercise,’’ Ulka Mahajan, a citizen activist, said.========================BLOs must visit at least once, avoid camps in party offices: State CEO’s officePune: The Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) has issued fresh instructions to election officials, reiterating that booth-level officers (BLOs) must visit every elector’s residence at least once during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and at least three times if the voter is not found at home on the first visit. The directions come following reports and complaints regarding the implementation of the exercise.In a communication on July 19, the CEO’s office stated that BLOs should not merely sit at a designated location to collect the enumeration forms in urban areas. Where voter addresses in the electoral roll are inaccurate, BLOs should first ascertain the correct address through local polling stations, housing societies or public/govt offices before conducting door-to-door visits. The instructions also make it clear that no voter should be marked absent without proper verification, election officials said.The CEO’s office has also barred the organisation of SIR camps at the offices of any political party, stressing that the Election Commission functions impartially and such arrangements could undermine public confidence. However, BLOs appointed by recognised political parties may assist election officials in locating voters or verifying addresses, the note states.
