Over 75 lakh Telangana voters yet to submit SIR enumeration forms despite ECI deadline extension

Despite two deadline extensions by the Election Commission of India, over 75 lakh electors in Telangana are yet to submit their SIR enumeration forms. Hyderabad accounts for the highest number of pending submissions ahead of the August 10 deadline.

Hyderabad: Even as the Election Commission of India (ECI) extended the deadline twice, electors in Telangana continue to show their apathy in completing their enumeration forms for Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll.

Information released by the Telangana Chief Electoral Office reveals a staggering 75,20,544 electors are yet to submit their forms to the BLOs till the last count on August 5.

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Of these, 20,02,774 electors in Hyderabad, highest among all districts, have not returned their forms, followed by Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts, where 13,14,710 and 11,09,751 forms are yet to be digitised.

Yadadri Bhuvanagiri, Mulugu and Jayashankar Bhupalpally districts recorded the lowest number of voters – 26,202, 27,624 and 36,010 respectively – who are still to submit the forms.

As for Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medchal-Malkajgiri districts, despite the outreach by political parties’ booth-level agents, election officials, and residential welfare associations, the response from the voters is not encouraging.

Further, people from Andhra Pradesh who migrated to Hyderabad, especially those living in areas such as Kukatpally, Dilsukhnagar, Madhapur, Hitec City, Serilingampally, Vanasthalipuram and other localities, are reportedly not interested in retaining their votes in the city.

In the last five days, form submission and digitisation in Hyderabad have seen a minimal increase from 56.79 per cent on August 1 to 57.72 per cent on August 5. Similarly, digitisation of forms increased from 63.81 per cent to 64.46 per cent in Rangareddy district and 61.85 per cent to 62.75 per cent in Medchal-Malkajgiri district.

A BLO in Hyderabad said that, anticipating voters to collect forms in the cases of absent and shifted houses, they have not marked them uncollectable.

“If we mark them uncollectable or for deletion, and the voter turns up at the last minute, it will be a lengthy process to undo such action. So, we will wait till the last date and then initiate necessary action,” he said.

As per the revised schedule issued by the ECI, enumeration forms can be submitted to BLOs till August 10. The rationalisation and reorganisation of polling stations will be carried out by August 10. The draft electoral rolls will be published on August 17, with the period for filing claims and objections scheduled from August 17 to September 16.

The disposal of claims and objections will be done between August 17 and October 15. The final electoral rolls will be published on October 19. The SIR exercise in Telangana was taken up on June 25 with an initial deadline of July 24, which was revised to August 3 and later to August 10.