Many are now scrambling to produce documents dating back to 1987, while the CEO’s office repeatedly directs their queries to Electoral Registration Officers (EROs). Bengaluru: Elderly voters in Bengaluru are finding themselves caught in the maze of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), grappling with incorrect addresses in the draft electoral roll, discrepancies between Aadhaar and EPIC names, and uncertainty over whether they have been issued notices.
Why doesn’t the SIR draft roll reflect the information voters provided in the enumeration form?” she asked TOI, as she considered filing Form 8 offline. In CV Raman Nagar, AV Shama Rao, 85, president of the Ramamurthy Nagar Welfare Association, said no notice list had been displayed at his booth when he checked. Documents issued by govt bodies, banks, post offices, LIC or PSUs before July 1, 1987, are among the documents accepted as proof. A CEO official said a passbook issued before 1987 could serve as residence proof for several senior citizens, while a new Aadhaar carrying the voter’s full date of birth could serve as a second proof providing both birth and address proof.
“The BLO has told us that most of us will receive notices because we could not find the 2002 data online or remember which booth we voted from,” he said. The SIR claims and objections process has left voters tasked with establishing their identity and electoral lineage, while many elderly residents struggle to locate ‘notice lists’ and gather the documents required to navigate a notice system that offers little clarity online. For instance, Shantha K (name changed), a Vasanth Nagar resident, found that her name appeared in the SIR draft roll with an incorrect address, raising more questions than answers. “I filled in all the details correctly, but the draft roll shows a random number for my address. Residents, he added, were now preparing passports, bank passbooks and other old documents.
Karnataka has 3.9 lakh voters aged above 85, but the CEO’s office had no data on how many elderly voters would receive notices. A senior official said questions over Aadhaar mismatches for offline application of form 8 would have to be addressed by the ERO.
Shantha said. Voters have also been asked to check notice lists displayed at their polling booths, many of which are located in schools. “But these are schools, and we cannot just barge in. Have they thought about senior citizens who do not have someone to check the list for them?