A call center will be launched to address concerns and clear doubts of foreign voters regarding the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state, said Chief Electoral Officer (Kerala) Rathan U. Kelkar.
Responding to concerns raised by political parties regarding the SIR and the inclusion of foreign voters in the electoral roll, Mr. Kelkar said that dedicated staff would be posted at the call center to answer queries. The CEO’s office was also ready to conduct an awareness campaign among foreign voters and requested NoRKA to hold a meeting for the same. An e-mail ID would also be created on which foreign voters could communicate their troubles.
According to him, in connection with the local media channels, recall programs could also be organized for voters.
Videos would also be posted on how to fill out the enumeration form. Negotiations were also held to clear doubts.
Based on the feedback from the parties related to the filling of the declaration form, Mr. Kelkar assured them that any ambiguities would be resolved.
District Collectors had enumeration forms ready in Kannada and Tamil. In addition, voters could also fill in the form in these languages.
BLOs and BLAS
Mr. Kelkar said the complaints regarding coordination between Cabin Level Officers (BLOs) and Cabin Level Agents (BLAs) would be addressed. Gaps in their training would also be bridged.
He reiterated that no verification would be done during the house-to-house enumeration phase. If at all, only in the second phase would one of the 12 identification documents be sought.
Asked to extend the deadline for the SIR, Mr. Kelkar said the exercise would be conducted as per the schedule already announced.
35 thousand enumeration forms
He said that the District Collectors who were responsible for conducting the elections and were in charge of running the SIR have been directed to ensure that the two run smoothly without any operational overlap. Nearly 35 thousand enumeration forms were distributed and nearly half of them were returned after filling them, Mr. Kelkar said.
Voters’ names could also be added after the draft lists are published on December 9. All eligible voters will be on the final rolls to be published in February.
He also did not expect any difficulty if the parties replaced the BLA when necessary.
Published – 8 Nov 2025 20:31 IST
