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Jaipur, Oct 28 (IANS) In a major update on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists, 70.55 per cent of voters in Rajasthan will not be required to submit any documents for verification.
State Chief Electoral Officer Naveen Mahajan said the election department has streamlined the process.
“We had already started voter mapping. More than 70 per cent of voters will not be required to provide documents from the day of declaration of SIR,” Mahajan said.
He said this figure could cross 80 percent once booth level officers (BLOs) start door-to-door verification.
As of October 27, there are 5,48,84,570 registered voters in Rajasthan. After reviewing the voter lists from 2002 to 2005, the department confirmed that 70.55 percent of the names matched the previous SIR records.
Of these, 79.32 percent voters above 40 years of age have been mapped through the BLO app, while only 22.22 percent voters below 40 years of age have been mapped so far.
Currently, Rajasthan is at the forefront among the 12 states operating SIR. The state’s overall voter mapping on the Election Commission of India (ECI) net is 49.37 per cent, ahead of Gujarat (5.73 per cent), Uttar Pradesh (13.41 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (20.09 per cent), Tamil Nadu (21.62 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (24.27 per cent).
Mahajan said the BLOs would visit each house up to three times to collect enumeration forms (EF) from voters.
“If no one is available even after three visits, the BLO will leave the form at the home and stick a notice,” he said.
He said the mapping process has become easier as voter lists of all states are now accessible.
“Earlier, it was difficult to verify voters in border states. Now, with national-level voter data, mapping can be done across states,” he said.
He said that the draft of SIR voter list will be published on December 9. Names of dead voters, duplicates and those who have been permanently shifted or are included in the list at two places will be removed.
“The deleted names will be made public on the election department’s website. Voters whose names were in the previous SIR are not required to provide any documents,” he said.
However, if the name of a parent or grandparent is listed instead, voters will have to submit identity proof, he said.
He said that in case of discrepancies, the Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) will issue a notice.
Mahajan warned that naming a voter at two places is a punishable offense under the election law, punishable with a jail term of up to one year.
“Voter roll data is now machine-readable across the country, making it easier to detect duplicate entries,” he said.
He informed that after the SIR, there will be an average of 890 voters per booth in Rajasthan, adding that a total of 8,819 new polling stations will be set up, taking the total number of booths across the state to 61,309.
“Special arrangements have been made for nomadic families. BLOs with the help of volunteers will distribute and collect voter forms from such groups to ensure complete inclusion,” he said.
–IANS
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