SIR notices leave Pune voters confused, some rush to centres even as ECI says hearing not required

Confusion prevailed amongst many residents in Pune who have been served notices for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls. Many are not clear as to why they have been served notices even after filling enumeration forms, don’t have clarity over documents to be submitted now, and have gotten contradictory instructions by Booth Level Officers (BLOs).

In the ongoing SIR, notices are being served to people who have filled the enumeration forms with ‘no mapping’ to the 2002 voter list or ‘logical discrepancies’ in their details.

Even as the Election Commission of India (ECI) declared on September 26 that BLOs should collect documents from those citizen’s houses who have been served notices and not call them for physical hearings unless exceptional circumstances, some residents in Pune were asked to submit their documents at centres. During the enumeration phase, BLOs had time and again complained that it was not physically possible to visit every voter’s home.

Khursheed Zakharia, a school teacher residing in the Pune Cantonment assembly constituency, has got a no-mapping notice. She spoke to her BLO on call on September 27, who told her that someone would be visiting her house to collect her documents on September 28.

“However when I called her to remind her this morning, she said she is not sure if someone can come home. She asked me to go to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Memorial Hall and gave me contact of someone I had to meet there. On calling him, he too asked me to come within 15 minutes. I said I teach in a school and it’s very difficult to just leave and come suddenly, to which he said he’ll send somebody home. I was not really convinced if someone would actually come. I took leave from school, came home, collected my documents and went there,” Zakharia said.

She said that when the BLO had come to fill her enumeration form, he did not ask for her parent’s 2002 SIR details and only her Aadhar number was filled. This has resulted in Zakharia getting a notice. She said, “He himself was not aware of what was to be filled. When I asked him if a photo was required he called his senior officer to check.”

She questioned why she had been served notice if she had been voting for so many years and if her father’s details were also available in the 2002 form.

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74-year old Anita Taheer, another resident of Pune Cantonment assembly constituency, said that she just received a call a few days ago telling her to submit documents at Wadia College. Tahir is currently visiting the United States of America. She has not even been sent her own notice, she was forwarded a no-mapping notice belonging to a person named Manish by her BLO. She was also sent a handwritten note with the names of four documents scribbled on it: Pan Card, Passport, Driving Licence, and Bank Passbook. Taheer is also not clear why she has been served the notice.

Just like Zakharia, Taheer’s SIR enumeration form does not contain her 2002 voter list details even though they are available on the ECI website. She says her BLO filled her enumeration form and did not tell her anything.

Rohan Desai, a citizen activist helping people in the SIR process, found both Taheer and Zakhria’s 2002 mapping details now and . “Since last Friday I have received around 47 calls or messages, mostly citizens sending their notice copies. They are surprised with the fact that even if they have finished the process, they are getting the notices. In Koregaon park area, I observed many voters have submitted the forms without filling 2002 details, and few cases form other areas where other discrepancies exist.”

At some hearing centres

A different scene played out at some other centres, where September 28 was the first day of scheduled hearings. No voters were present at the hearing centre at Government Technical School in Shivajinagar in the afternoon. Assistant Electoral Registration Officer (AERO) Madhusudan Yenkar told The Indian Express that BLOs had been dispatched to people’s houses to collect documents as physical hearings had been scrapped by the ECI unless exceptional circumstances.

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He said that of the 150-odd hearings scheduled today, documents of over 90 per cent residents had already been collected by the two respective BLOs. Yenkar added, “As notices had already been distributed with dates on them, we are sitting at the centre so that if anyone turns up here we will entertain them. Around four to five people have come since the morning.”

At Appasaheb Kulkarni Primary School in Gokhalenagar, AERO Dhanraj Valmiki said that over 50 people who had already been served notices had come to the centre to submit their documents. “However, no hearings are going to happen and BLOs have been asked to go door-to-door to collect documents,” he said.

Megha Siddhalor, who had also been served notice for no mapping, arrived at the centre in Gokhalenagar with her class 10 marksheet that she had to procure from her school in Karnataka. The officials present there assured her that she would most likely not have to come back again to submit any other document.