New Delhi, October 16: Booth-level officers (BLOs) in Delhi have been directed to reverify the details of more than 47 lakh voters whose names were excluded from the draft electoral rolls during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). The exercise aims to ensure that no eligible voter is left out of the final electoral list, Chief Electoral Officer Ashok Kumar said on Friday.
The draft electoral rolls, published on August 31, contained around 97.5 lakh voters, compared with 1.45 crore names in the electoral roll as of June 30. This represents a reduction of approximately 32.8% in the number of registered voters.
Among the six major metropolitan cities—Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad—Delhi recorded the second-lowest percentage of deletions at the draft stage.
According to Kumar, BLOs had visited the residences of voters at least three times during the initial enumeration exercise. However, officials have now been instructed to conduct another round of verification to identify possible errors and determine whether any eligible voters were inadvertently excluded.
An official clarified that BLOs would visit only the addresses available in their records. They would not search the surrounding areas for voters whose names were missing from the draft list.
If an eligible voter is identified during the reverification process, the BLO will assist them in filling out Form 6 to apply for inclusion in the electoral rolls.
Delhi has 14,947 booth-level officers, 902 assistant electoral registration officers, 70 electoral registration officers and 13 district electoral officers. These officials, along with the Chief Electoral Officer's office, are responsible for addressing voters' concerns during the revision process.
Kumar also said that around 25 lakh cases out of 33.12 lakh involving voters who received notices over non-mapping or logical discrepancies had been resolved.
Authorities have further instructed BLOs not to reject applications summarily when voters have made minor errors in their personal details. The aim is to ensure that genuine voters are not excluded because of small discrepancies in their records.
Voters whose names are missing from the draft electoral rolls can submit Form 6 to seek inclusion in the final list. The final electoral rolls for Delhi are scheduled to be published on December 4.
The reverification exercise is expected to play an important role in checking the accuracy of the draft rolls and giving eligible voters an opportunity to secure their place on the final electoral list.
Reader Comments 0