A door-to-door enumeration for SIR is going on in Madurai on Sunday. | Photo credit: R. ASHOK
In the wake of repeated protests by political parties against the ongoing Special Intensive Review (SIR) in Tamil Nadu citing fears of voter loss, complaints of omission of names, non-availability of voters in remote areas, etc., are some of the issues that have doubled the fear.
Even Chief Minister MK Stalin expressed his fear that voters would have no idea how to fill the complicated SIR enumeration forms issued by booth level officers (BLOs).
However, rejecting the claims and concerns of political parties opposing the SIR, saying it was a deliberate move to gain political mileage, the AIADMK and the BJP claimed that the ruling party was afraid that it could no longer continue its malpractice of enrolling or maintaining a large number of “bogus” or ineligible voters, such as those who had died or died.
However, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has clarified that it has clearly instructed all Election Registration Officers (EROs) and BLOs on the procedures to be followed during the counting process in the state.
The enumeration process, the first phase in SIR, which began in Tamil Nadu on November 4, is scheduled to end on December 4. The limited time set to complete the process not only forced the BLOs to rush their work but also left them in the dark about missing and untraceable voters.
Many BLOs in Madurai, responding to politicians’ concerns about electors being left out of the process, said on condition of anonymity that the entire SIR process was new to them as well, as they were only used to a special summary review, adding and deleting voters based on voter requests.
They added that the training for SIRs was started just one month before the census process started and the training was also limited to only the basic procedures of filling the data required on the SIR forms.
In addition to the problems faced by the BLO, the process was also marred by technical difficulties in finding a name in the 2002 and 2005 electoral rolls. The details of the 2002 and 2005 electoral rolls needed to verify eligible voters were either inaccessible due to their user-unfriendly format of their names or unavailability, according to many residents.
Ramdas, a DMK cadre in Madurai, said that in places like DRO Colony and other housing board residences, residents were always on the move, given the nature of their jobs.
“Since most of them are in government posts, due to frequent transfers and promotions, they tend to move houses which often fall under different wards and constituencies,” he added.
Because of this, the BLO of the area struggled to find even less than half of the voters on the list.
“According to the training given to them, a voter missing from a house means they have moved and registered their votes elsewhere. But in a situation where most of the houses in the residences here are unoccupied and others were unreachable, how would the BLO issue the enumeration forms to the voters,” he asked.
Mr. Ramdas further said that to help the BLOs, they informed the available residents in the area to check the forms available with the BLOs to identify any current residents.
“We know it’s a difficult task, but it’s the only way to reach out to voters to provide their census forms,” he noted.
Similarly, in difficult terrains like Kodaikanal where the population was mostly tribal, BLOs have not yet visited most of the villages to reach out to voters, said a social worker named James.
Public filling of SIR forms at help desk in Ramanathapuram on Sunday. | Photo credit: L. BALACHANDAR
In places like Mangalamkombu, where the tribal population dominates, most of them leave for the nearby forests early in the morning and return only after sunset, he explained.
“During our visits to these villages, we found that no official has yet visited these areas. But the villagers said they were asked by the panchayat staff to visit the local government office and learn about the progress of the SIR,” he added.
A special SIR camp was held at Melappalayam Primary School in Tirunelveli. | Photo credit: SHAIKMOHIDEEN A
However, Mr James said they instructed tribal people to take a day off from work to fill in their enumeration forms as they would not be eligible to vote without their names.
“Another major problem for them is the difference in details like names, addresses, relatives, in their Aadhaar cards and voter ID cards. We also fear that if tribal people provide their names with incorrect spelling, their forms will be rejected during the approval process,” he added.
Similar problems existed with the fishing population in Ramanathapuram district, where men spend most of their time in sea fishing.
Public filling of SIR forms at help desk in Ramanathapuram on Sunday. | Photo credit: L. BALACHANDAR
Unlike inaccessible hilly terrains like Kodaikanal, fishing areas where BLOs were able to reach out to families and issue enumeration forms to them, they could not get relevant details from voters, the BLO said.
“The women who are mostly there were able to provide basic details but most of them were not able to provide details such as the names of their relatives from previous electoral rolls,” he added.
Part of the confusion in finding their details in previous electoral rolls was also due to the change in assembly segments after the delimitation process in 2007, the BLO said.
People interacting with officials at the SIR camp in Dindigul. | Photo credit: G. Karthikeyan
He was worried that this was a major problem for almost all the people in the state, he said, even though they were not aware of the solution to such problems.
Jesuraja, head of the fishermen’s association, said, “We cannot afford to spend days searching for our documents and details to fulfill the SIR form. Instead, the ECI can set up camps in each ward or constituency to help the public get their details.”
A fisherman in Rameswaram said, “I have been trying to find my EPIC number, first by searching by card number and then by name or voter ID, but since the website has not been updated, all searches say No Data Found.”
Although he requested the BLO, he was told to leave the premises and proceed with further details. “I am afraid that if I omit these details, I will lose my name in the draft voter list to be published on December 9,” he added.
Although they were able to apply as soon as the draft voter list was published, the public feared that they would not be able to provide the required documents with limited time, leading to a permanent loss of the right to vote.
The public fear reflected concerns raised by civil society organizations, political parties and human rights activists that the SIR was a targeted activity to remove minority voters from the electoral roll.
Responding to public concerns, Madurai Collector KJ Praveen Kumar said, “Now the exercise we are doing is just to check each voter and try to map them either to themselves or their parents or grandparents in the special revision database of 2002 or 2005.
All those people who could not find their names or were not mapped will be notified and verified, he added.
Public filling of SIR enumeration forms on Sunday at Thoothukudi camp. | Photo credit: RAJESH N
“Now the exercise is to automatically include the mapped voters and find the dead, shifted and absent voters. All the census forms that would not be collected back will be physically verified again by the BLO through a door-to-door exercise,” said Praveen Kumar.
