Telangana SIR process to cost over Rs.200 crore

The ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in Telangana is expected to cost over Rs.200 crore, with around Rs.85 crore earmarked for salaries of Booth Level Officers and other officials involved in the exercise.

Hyderabad: The ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the State comes with a price tag of over Rs.200 crore, including workforce salaries, logistics and other arrangements. Of the total, around Rs.85 crore has been earmarked for the salaries of the Booth Level Officers (BLOs) and other officials on SIR duty.

The Telangana Chief Electoral Office has made SIR arrangements, including distribution of two enumeration forms per elector to 3,38,26,448 electors. Each enumeration form, with printing on two sides, costs Rs.3. The expenditure on the SIR process is equally borne by the Election Commission of India and the State government.

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“We have already released the amount towards salaries of the Booth Level Officers. However, the district election officers and electoral registration officers have failed to withdraw them in time and pay the BLOs,” said official sources.

A total of 2,64,87,213 out of 3,38,26,448 electors in Telangana submitted enumeration forms. Among those submitted, 60,50,918 electors had anomalies and 32,36,659 voters were categorised as unmapped with SIR 2002. A total of 73,39,235 electors were marked absent, shifted, dead or as double voters (ASDD).

The enumeration commenced on June 25 and concluded on August 10. In addition to 33 district election officers, the SIR process is being executed by 119 Electoral Registration Officers (EROs), 892 Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs), 3,590 BLO Supervisors and 35,985 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) at 35,985 polling stations in the State.

Further, various political parties have also deployed 49,018 Booth Level Agents (BLAs).