From door-to-door visits to special booths, Noida BLOs say SIR work ‘never stopped’

“Special booth laga hai… aa jayein… (A special booth has been set up… please do come)”. This is what Suman Batra, 51, a booth level officer (BLO) and a teacher, repeated over a call on Saturday morning for the umpteenth time as she sat inside the staff room of a government school in Harola village of Noida’s Sector 5.

Surrounded by four more BLOs, who had electors’ lists and BLO app open in front of them, she was referring to the Special Summary Revision (SSR) camps being held across Uttar Pradesh at all polling booths to register as many eligible first-time voters as they could as well as those who were left out of state’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) rolls published in April. While one such camp was held on Saturday, the next round of camps will be held on October 24.

Harola is mostly inhabited by migrant workers from states such as Bihar and West Bengal. Batra has been trying all possible ways to maximise outreach to locals — whether by making calls, or uploading relevant information on social media.

“I have been working here as a BLO since 2006 and I know the residents here. I’ve been calling them since yesterday, asking if they were left out of SIR or if their children are aged 18 or above,” she said.

Batra added, “During the three months of the SIR exercise, we went door to door, but since many people were not able to tell if they or their parents or grandparents made it to the last SIR list, mapping became a herculean task for us too. While some co-operated, many were confused. Now, they are filling Form 6, which is used for registering new voters.”

Deletions, concerns

To ensure maximum inclusion of eligible electors, post the UP CEO’s order, senior officials of Gautam Buddha Nagar directed the BLO’s that new voters now being added to the electoral roll under special circumstances are no longer required to provide information related to the SIR. “Yes we’re hearing about it,” said one of the BLOs.

The simplified rules come amid an ongoing row over the alleged irregularities in the SIR exercise involving deletion of over 13 crore names from the draft rolls in 30 states and Union Territories. An investigative report, published by The Indian Express on September 23, pointed to an internal rift within the Election Commission.

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In UP, 2.05 crore names were struck off following SIR exercise spanning 166 days. Of these, roughly 3.6 lakh people from Gautam Buddha Nagar did not make it to the final electoral roll, while the draft had 4.4 lakh voters removed.

Maximising outreach, minimising confusion

Gautam Buddha Nagar has three Assembly constituencies — Noida, Dadri and Jewar. According to a senior official, the SSR camps were organised across 900 polling centres in the district on Saturday.

Speaking to a first-time elector, Vedansh Kashyap, 18, who was brought to the booth by one of his parents after much convincing by Batra, she said, “We need your photograph, Class 10 marksheet and an address proof.”

As Kashyap handed over the required documents, Batra said, “At least he came, many just send their documents over WhatsApp. This is where most of our times go. We have to sit and fill the Form 6.”

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Meanwhile, Vinay, a computer science teacher at the school who has been working as a BLO since 2015, said, “I know people who were left out of the SIR, I called them yesterday to inform them. Some will come. But our work never stopped,” he said while filling a Form 7, which is meant for the deletion of an existing name, of a voter who died in June post SIR.

“We tried to not let any eligible voter go off the list. Whenever we see a ‘book a call’ request on the app, I call up the people,” he said.
While these BLOs attended the electors, they also tried their best to balance their duties as teachers. Their colleagues, meanwhile, tried to help them.

Around 4 km away was set up another camp at N S Public School where BLO Anju Gaur helped a 18-year-old fill up her Form 6. Drawing contrast with Harola, Gaur claimed, “The three BLOs at this booth were able to map all the residents. Here people are mostly retired bureaucrats, who usually have the required documents. It was tough to map everyone but we completed it.