SIR: Special camps for displaced, left-out voters

Amid the political row over Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Delhi on Wednesday announced special camps across the National Capital to facilitate the enrolment of eligible electors who have been left out of the electoral rolls, including those displaced by recent demolitions and now living at new addresses as part of the ongoing SIR exercise.

According to the office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer, the camps will be held on October 9 and 11 at polling stations across the city, while Booth-Level Officers (BLO) will go door-to-door to identify eligible voters who were left out of the draft roll and help them apply for inclusion through Form 6.

The camps will also cover residents whose colonies have been demolished recently and who have since shifted to new addresses. Such electors have been asked to approach the camp nearest to their new address and apply for inclusion in the electoral roll through Form 6.

The issue of displaced voters is crucial in Delhi, given demolition drives in areas like Bela Estate and Yamuna Bazar, where residents were evicted from their registered addresses. Political parties and civil society groups have raised concerns over the effect of such displacement on inclusion of voters’ names in the revised rolls.

The Election Commission, in its October 1 instructions, told states and Union territories where SIR has been completed to undertake special drives to enrol eligible electors who were left out. In Delhi, BLOs will identify such voters during house-to-house visits and help them enrol through Form 6.

The Delhi CEO’s office said an elector whose name does not figure in the draft roll can apply for inclusion with the requisite documents during the claims and objections period, which has been extended till October 30. The final electoral roll is scheduled for publication on December 4. “Any eligible elector whose name is not present in the draft electoral roll may file Form 6 along with supporting documents during the claims and objections period for inclusion in the final electoral roll,” the CEO said in a statement.

According to the statement, electors who have shifted residence and were marked absent, shifted, dead and duplicate (ASDD) during the BLOs’ house-to-house verification can also apply through Form 6. The ASDD list has been posted on the Delhi CEO’s website so people can check whether their names appear.

The Election Commission issued notices to more than 33 lakh electors requiring verification of their eligibility.   The poll body is simultaneously trying to expedite verification of voters who made it to the draft roll but received notices during SIR. BLOs are visiting such electors at their homes to collect documents, meaning they do not necessarily have to appear before election officials for a hearing.

As of Wednesday, more than 13.62 lakh cases involving non-mapping and logical discrepancies had been verified based on documents collected from electors, according to the CEO’s office. All notices, claims and objections are to be disposed of by November 30.

The SIR has become a major political flashpoint in Delhi after the draft electoral roll published on August 31 excluded around 47.56 lakh names from the city’s previous electorate of about 1.45 crore. The draft roll included around 97.5 lakh electors.

Delhi has seen over 4.11 lakh Form 6 applications, including nearly 1.99 lakh since the draft roll was published on August 31. It has also seen more than 3.34 lakh Form 8 applications, which are used, among other purposes, to shift residence within or outside a constituency.

Meanwhile, the EC has clarified the Opposition’s allegation that more than 13 crore voters were deleted during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying the number belongs to voters who were categorised under the ASDD -- Absent, Shifted Permanently, Dead and Duplicate. According to the data released by the ECI, a total of 95.40 crore voters were scrutinised during the three phases of the SIR exercise. Out of these, 13.39 crore voters were categorised under ASDD and other categories during the revision process. According to the EC, more than 10 lakh Booth Level Officers across the states checked the ASDD lists before finalising them. The EC then shared the lists booth by booth with over 22 lakh Booth Level Agents of political parties.