NEW DELHI: Amid widespread reports of booth-level officers (BLO) facing severe stress, with some of them allegedly found dead, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has extended the schedule of the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in 12 States, including Rajasthan, and the Union Territories by a week.
It says a BLO is a local Government/Semi-Government official, familiar with the local electors and generally a voter in the same polling area, who assists in updating the roll using their local knowledge.
The enumeration phase will now continue till December 11 instead of December 4. The draft list will be released on December 16 instead of December 9, and the final roll will be published on February 14 instead of February 7, the ECI said in a statement.
The second phase of the SIR, now underway, is set to cover 51 crore voters in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
ECI sources, however, said that an additional week is being given to allow BLOs, who are poll officials, sufficient time to share the names of absent, shifted, dead, and duplicate voters with BLAs, the booth-level agents appointed by political parties, before the draft rolls are published, to ensure full transparency.
The Trinamul Congress leadership says the ECI has admitted its mistake by extending the deadline for SIR by seven days, adding that the ECI should apologise to the people of West Bengal for the deaths which have allegedly occurred during the ‘hurriedly carried out’ revision.
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