SIR
There are hundreds like Khan who filed Form 6, including many fresh voters, but two district election officers told TOI that the Form 6 applications have a huge pendency as the election officials did not have clarity on whether to process them. Vacancies in the post of electoral registration officers (ERO), who are the authority to take a decision on accepting or rejecting Form 6 applications, have also led to delay. Form 6 is the application form for new voters. “It is true that there is huge pendency of Form 6 applications. On Sept 26, Election Commission issued a press note saying that “any person whose name has got left out during SIR or thereafter, and any person including young/first-time voter, may apply to the ERO concerned, for inclusion of their names in the electoral rolls under the process of continuous updation.
Because they had been deleted once by the same system to which they were now applying for inclusion as fresh voters, “The EROs did not know whether to process them or not. Because they must have been old voters,” said the DEO, the EROs and assistant EROs sat on the Form 6 applications, especially the ones that came from people who are more than 25 years. Because there was no clarity ahead of the April assembly election, khan said he filed an appeal with the tribunal as well as a Form 6.
Many EROs were removed from their posts after election but no replacement has come yet,” said a district election officer (DEO). Another DEO said that many of the applications were from voters whose names were deleted during SIR or were struck off the rolls by judicial officers who examined the “under adjudication” cases. “If the Form 6 application was not the right route, then a rejection message could have come,” he said.
District magistrates are the DEOs of districts. In Kolkata, the KMC commissioner is the DEO Kolkata North and the director of land records and surveys is the DEO, Kolkata South. The letter was sent to the CEO by Election Commission.
On Wednesday, all DEOs were forwarded a letter by the office of the chief electoral officer (CEO).