Delhi SIR schedule revised, final voter list to be out on November 4

The schedule of the Special Intensive Revision exercise in Delhi was revised on Wednesday by the Election Commission, fixing November 4 for the publication of the final voter list, with officials saying the extension was needed for the rationalisation of polling stations.

According to the earlier schedule, the final electoral roll was to be published on October 27. This is the third revision of the SIR schedule in Delhi since the exercise was launched with door-to-door distribution of enumeration forms among voters from June 30.

Poll officials said that the latest revision was made on technical grounds, including rationalisation of polling stations in the city.

Under the revised schedule, the draft electoral rolls will be published on August 31 instead of August 24, said a statement from the office of Delhi Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) citing an EC letter.

The period of filing claims and objections by the voters whose names are excluded from the draft rolls has also been changed.

Earlier, the filing of claims and objections was to be done from August 24 to September 23. Now, the voters can file their claims and objections from August 31 to September 30.

Poll officials will dispose of the claims and objections from August 31 to October 29. Previously, the phase was scheduled from 24 August to October 22.

The extension in SIR dates has been necessitated by the rationalisation of polling stations, with the Election Commission mandating that each polling station should have a maximum of 1,200 electors, the poll officials said.

The SIR of electoral rolls is being carried out on the basis of Delhi’s pre-SIR voter database. There were 1.45 crore electors when the electoral rolls were frozen on June 16.

“Based on the pre-SIR data, there are some polling stations where the number of electors is more than 1,200. The district election officers have sent proposals for revision and, once these are approved, voters will have to be tagged to the newly created polling stations in the IT system,” a senior official explained.

Rationalisation or rearrangement of polling stations was scheduled to be completed on August 17. In the revised schedule, it has been extended to August 24.

The process will take a few more days as the proposals have to be approved and voters subsequently tagged to the new polling stations in the IT system.

“The Commission will take about four to five days to give approval, and the IT process will take another four to five days. That is why the deadline has been extended,” the officer said            In the door-to-door voter verification exercise in Delhi, over 47 lakh voters (33 per cent of total 1.45 crore) were marked as “uncollectable” as their enumeration forms were not digitised. These voters will be removed from the electoral rolls to be published on August 31.

Each voter was provided enumeration forms by booth-level officers (BLOs) during the house-to-house verification exercise between June 30 and August 17.

Over 67 per cent of forms were submitted by voters to the BLOs which were digitised (uploaded) on the Election Commission’s SIR mobile application.

The voters under the absent and shifted category will be able to file their applications during the claims and objections phase, to be included in the final electoral rolls to be out on November 4.