New Delhi: The Election Commission of India has extended the timeline for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Delhi, with officials planning to step up door-to-door verification of 47.56 lakh voters excluded from the draft electoral rolls published on 31 August.
Senior officials said on Friday that another round of verification could be carried out following the extension of the deadlines. The exercise will involve all 14,947 booth-level officers (BLOs) deployed across the national capital, including government school teachers who have been handling SIR-related duties since 30 June.
The office of the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) had earlier directed officials to revisit deleted entries and verify whether the excluded voters were eligible for inclusion in the final electoral roll. While the exercise is nearly complete, officials said the revised schedule would allow them to conduct further checks.
Special camps for voter enrolment, including for students, homeless people, transgender persons and sex workers, are also being considered for 15 and 22 November.
Around 32 lakh of the more than 33 lakh cases in which electors were issued notices over non-mapping with the 2002 electoral roll or "logical discrepancies" have been resolved so far, officials said.
The Election Commission announced the revised schedule on Thursday, extending the deadline for filing claims and objections from 31 October to 25 November. The disposal of claims and objections will now continue until 15 December, and the final electoral roll will be published on 22 December.
Under the previous schedule, the disposal process was to be completed by 30 November, with the final electoral roll due on 4 December.
The extension came a day after the Supreme Court asked the poll panel to consider extending the deadline for voters to file applications. Along with Delhi, the Election Commission also revised the SIR schedule for Maharashtra, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Nagaland.
Following the exclusion of 47.56 lakh electors from Delhi's draft electoral rolls, the poll body received 2,75,856 Form 6 applications between 31 August and 28 October. Form 6 is used by eligible voters seeking inclusion in the electoral rolls, Form 7 for deletion of names, and Form 8 for correction or modification of existing entries.
The extension of the claims and objections period has also led to an extension of the half-day deployment arrangement for BLOs and their supervisors in Delhi. An order issued by the electoral registration officer (ERO) of the Rajinder Nagar Assembly constituency said the arrangement introduced on 15 September would continue until 25 November.
The arrangement allows officials to carry out SIR-related duties without affecting their regular departmental work.
Teachers deployed as BLOs and supervisors will perform revision duties during the half of the day when they are not required to attend to their teaching shifts. Teachers working in morning-shift schools will undertake SIR duties in the second half of the day, while those in evening-shift schools will perform them in the first half.
Office staff, Anganwadi and ASHA workers, and other personnel deployed for the exercise will be permitted to perform SIR duties during the second half of the day or on alternate days, depending on administrative convenience and departmental requirements.
The order said BLOs and their supervisors would assist in serving hearing notices, collecting relevant documents and carrying out other field-level activities related to claims and objections.
Heads of departments, principals, and other concerned officials have been directed to extend administrative cooperation to ensure the timely completion of the SIR exercise.