Divisional commissioners will supervise the work, while electoral officers must promptly review applications, resolve complaints and remove duplicate entries.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has put under mandatory scrutiny all names added, deleted or amended in the voter list across Uttar Pradesh through Forms 6 (registration), 7 (deletion), and 8 (correction of entries) fed by computer assistants in all 403 assembly constituencies of the state after the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process ended on April 10. The decision follows the detection of anomalies in electoral rolls of various assembly constituencies in Uttar Pradesh, particularly in districts like Pilibhit and Azamgarh.
Though the number is estimated to be in several lakhs, ECI has released no data of the deletion or addition of names to the voter list post completion of SIR in April.
The ECI has also banned computer assistants from feeding forms related to the electoral rolls. All forms received physically from voters will be digitised by the booth level officer (BLO) through the BLO App.
Oversight and Accountability
Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer (CEO) Navdeep Rinwa said all the divisional commissioners have been made electoral roll observers.
“It is the responsibility of the commissioners to ensure close supervision of voter list work in the districts within their division. While the district election officers have been tasked with supervising the working of the officers entrusted with preparation of electoral rolls. Strict action will be taken against officers, if any laxity is found in their working,” he said.
If anomalies in the voter list are detected, action will also be taken against the electoral registration officer (ERO), assistant electoral registration officer (AERO) and computer assistant under Section 32 of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, he warned.
Preparations for the Special Summary Revision
The CEO reviewed the preparations for the Special Summary Revision (SSR) of voter lists for assembly constituencies in a virtual meeting with all divisional commissioners, district election officers (DEOs), EROs and AEROs on Saturday.
“It should be ensured that the errors found in the investigation of complaints received from various political parties and through social media regarding the voter list are not repeated,” the CEO said. All officials were instructed not to share their ERONET login ID and password with anyone, he added.
The EROs have been instructed to review all pending Forms 6, 7, and 8 daily and ensure their prompt and timely disposal.
“Ensure that all forms received physically are kept safe,” the CEO said.
Training, Systems and Complaints
All officers have been trained on ECINET through a presentation, which provided detailed information to the district election officer, ERO and AERO regarding the information available on the dashboard and the procedures to follow.
All officers were directed to update their personal mobile numbers on the portal, instead of their CUG numbers, so that work is not affected during BSNL network outages.
“All officers should ensure that their passwords are changed immediately, as per the password policy,” he said
The CEO expressed dissatisfaction with the functioning of DEOs of Bulandshahr, Sitapur, Ghaziabad, and Aligarh for not submitting timely reports about complaints related to duplicate voters circulated on social media. They were instructed to submit reports promptly.
Regarding complaints received through NGSP (National Grievance Service Portal), PGRS (Public Grievance Redressal System), social media, and other sources related to the electoral rolls, it was directed that the EROs ensure timely and quality disposal of complaints received through all channels since April 10, he said
It should be ensured that all call requests received from citizens under the ‘Book a Call With BLO’ service on the ECINET app and the https://voters.eci.gov.in portal should not remain pending for more than 48 hours, he said.
Strict action will be taken if complaints are received regarding inconvenience caused to citizens due to BLOs selecting the option of “unavailable” without contacting voters, or due to citizens not responding to their call requests in a timely manner, he said.
