61-year-old Karnataka resident declared dead in draft voter roll visits officials

Donald Joseph Rego (61) had no reason to prove that he was alive. Until the draft electoral roll published on August 24 under the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) told him otherwise.

The 61-year-old from Mangaluru South constituency’s Bejai discovered his name was missing from the draft rolls and was listed instead under the “dead” category of the Absent, Shifted, Duplicate, Dead and Others (ASDDO) list.

The discovery kicked off a series of fruitless visits to election officials, said Rego. “I kept going from one office to another, and instead of taking responsibility, the officials kept directing me to someone else,” he said, alleging that the assistant electoral officer (AERO) blamed the booth-level officer (BLO), who in turn told him to speak to the data entry operator who had uploaded the information through the SIR mobile application.

His record was eventually corrected. He received a revised document on Monday and is now waiting for his physical voter ID.

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Bengaluru SIR sends voters discrepancy notices

Over 4.3 million voters have received notices over discrepancies in their electoral records so far under the exercise, which is currently in the claims and objections phase. The hearings began across the state on September 5 and will continue until September 23.

What looks like a database exercise on paper is increasingly being worked out in homes, government offices and hearing centres, where voters are searching for old certificates and trying to understand why records they considered settled have suddenly become questions.

In Jayanagar, a voter was flagged because the recorded age gap between him and his sibling was less than nine months. The family is preparing to explain why two children were born as twins.

Hegganahalli resident Nagaraju Shivappa’s BLO asked him to produce another document along with Aadhaar. Nagaraju did not have an SSLC certificate or a passport and was advised to apply for a Permanent Residence Certificate (PRC) He said he spent five days trying to submit the application. “The portal kept showing an error. I would try again, but the application would not go through.” He was then asked to attend a hearing on Monday and explain his circumstances.

PRC applications have themselves surfaced as hurdles in some cases. Technical and server problems have been reported on platforms including Atal Seva Sindhu, Bengaluru One, Karnataka One and Gram One. Staff at rural centres have continued trying to upload applications despite the errors.

Also Read I Karnataka SIR: ECI withdraws discrepancy notice issued to Padma Awardee Hajabba

Discrepancies beyond 2002 electoral roll

The questions have also reached voters whose electoral participation is relatively recent.

Independent journalist Rohini Mohan received a notice flagging an alleged technical discrepancy even though there was not change in her name in previous records. “My name is Rohini in the 2002 voter roll, father’s name Mohan, who is apparently a different person than Rohini Mohan whose father is Mohan,” she said.

Journalist Samar Halarnkar discovered that he and his 90-year-old mother received notices after someone circulated the list in a WhatsApp group instead getting a notice from the BLO. The Election Commission had matched his EPIC number with the 2002 electoral roll, yet both names had been flagged.

Also Read I Over 3.64 million SIR notices issued in Karnataka yet to reach voters

The problems extend beyond Bengaluru. About 52,000 voters in the coastal districts remain unmapped. Additional Deputy Commissioner of Dakshina Kannada Raju K said the issue affected people working abroad as well as migrants living and working in the district.