Delhi SIR drive clears 20 lakh voter entries flagged for discrepancies, says CEO

Around 20 lakh of the 33 lakh voter entries flagged under the “Logical Discrepancy” and “Unmapped” categories in Delhi have been resolved, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said on Monday, as authorities step up verification ahead of the publication of the final electoral roll on December 4.

In a post on X, the Delhi CEO’s office said a proactive campaign had been launched to address the discrepancies and reiterated that “no eligible voter will be excluded from the voter list”.

The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise involves verifying the eligibility of electors whose details have been flagged for inconsistencies or whose records could not be mapped as required.

Nearly 15,000 BLOs tasked with daily verification targets

The verification of electors issued notices under the SIR has been intensified, with 14,947 Booth Level Officers (BLOs) directed to verify at least 10 electors each day to speed up the disposal of pending cases.

The target translates into nearly 150,000 verifications daily. BLOs are required to visit electors at their residences and help them provide the necessary documents and information to establish their eligibility.

Officials in the Delhi CEO’s office said the measures were introduced after verification initially progressed at a slow pace. The intensified exercise has since helped increase the number of electors whose cases have been cleared.

More than 1.3 million of the nearly 3.3 million electors who received notices under the SIR exercise have now been verified, officials said.

Claims and objections to be cleared by November 30

The authorities are working towards completing the disposal of all notices, claims and objections by November 30, in accordance with the announced schedule. The final electoral roll is due to be published on December 4.

The notices were issued to electors whose records were categorised as “No Mapping” or “Logical Discrepancies”. The exercise is intended to establish whether these electors meet the eligibility requirements before the final roll is published.

Officials said daily targets had been introduced to maintain a steady pace of verification and ensure that the large backlog of cases is addressed within the stipulated timeline.

“Targets have also been given to Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs). We have set a target of November 25 for completing the process of verifying electors,” an official aware of the matter said.

The CEO’s office has repeatedly clarified that receiving a notice does not automatically mean an elector’s name will be deleted from the final electoral roll. Those who have received notices can respond to them and submit the required information and documents to establish their eligibility.

The authorities have reiterated that the verification process is intended to resolve discrepancies and determine eligibility before the final list is published, with the stated assurance that no eligible voter will be excluded.