File photo of an SIR hearing in Kolkata ——- TOI
The BLOs will give Form 6 to the eligible but deleted voters during this one month. On Monday, BLOs met EROs and flagged their concerns about the electors whose appeals are pending in tribunals, Form 6 inclusion that was earlier said to be meant for new voters only, and whether any document needs to be submitted. They were also asked to mark the new voters in separate categories based on their ages like 18-19 years, 19-21 years and 21 years and above. “Earlier, we were told that Form 6 was only meant for new or first-time electors, not for those who lost their voting rights during the SIR exercise. But now it is said that the left-out voters would be allowed to apply through Form 6.
Genuine voters lost their electoral rights.
Subsequently, the EROs will take necessary action,” a senior EC official said. There is some confusion about the matter and the ERO told me that he did not have any direction from EC in this regard. I did not find my answers,” said another BLO from Kasba. Swapan Mondal, general secretary of Votekarmi O BLO Aikyamancha, said, “During the SIR we had pointed out the mistakes that were ignored.
“The commission has directed the district election officers (DEOs) and electoral registration officers (EROs) to engage the BLOs for making a door-to-door visit to the voters whose names were deleted in the SIR and also for the enrolment of the first-time electors. They were instructed to make separate lists of deleted voters in three categories, such as logical discrepancy, no mapping and ASDD (absent, shifted, dead or duplicate). “What to do about the electors whose appeals are pending in the tribunal? Should I need to ask for any additional documents other than what they had already given during the SIR? Now BLOs are being engaged to make a list of deleted voters.”
The BLOs said they did not get answers to their queries at a training session with EROs on Monday. I was told to start making the list of deleted voters immediately,” said a BLO from Jadavpur who attended the training session at New Treasury Building, Alipore on Monday.