Election Commission
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Thursday asked all chief electoral officers (CEOs) — particularly of states/UTs due for assembly polls next year — to start training booth level officers (BLOs) and urge the political parties to appoint adequate number of booth level agents (BLAs) ahead of the impending announcement of a staggered, pan-India special intensive revision (SIR) of their electoral rolls.These directions were given by EC on the concluding day of CEOs conference — presided over by chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar in the presence of election commissioners S S Sandhu and Vivek Joshi. The Commission on Thursday also held separate, one-on-one interactions with the CEOs of the five poll-bound states/UT — Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam and Puducherry — to understand any issues unique to them. The SIR process in these states/UT and a few others to be covered in the initial phase, is likely to stretch over three months, culminating with the publication of their final roll in January end or start of February.Having heard all CEOs at the two-day conference, on the progress of mapping of their electors with the roll published after the last intensive revision undertaken in 2003-2004 and also having clarified their queries on the SIR process, EC is set to hold internal deliberations over the next couple of days to finalise the pan-India SIR schedule. As reported by TOI on Wednesday, EC may announce the nationwide SIR exercise — covering the five poll-bound states/UT and a few others in the initial phase — within the next 3-4 days.Elaborating on the need for CEOs to start training BLOs immediately, a senior EC official said: “BLOs are a crucial link in the implementation of SIR”. The officer added that BLOs shall be updated on the processes to be followed, including distribution of enumeration forms and aiding the electors to sign and submit them, either physically or online. The mandatory requirement of making three visits to the electors’ addresses shall be emphasised during their daylong training.Also, given that EC is keen to hold the pan-India SIR with full involvement of the political parties, it has directed the state/UT CEOs to engage with the parties and encourage them to appoint BLAs. These BLAs may also be trained on aspects of SIR.Sources said it was explained to CEOs that any elector in their state/UT can easily be mapped with the 2003/04 roll of any state/UT as rolls of all states/UTs are now available in a digitised form.
